Seriously. They could add some other great features and they had to go with stories. I love Signal and use it but the addition of stories was a head scratcher.
IMO, Telegram should take some inspiration from Discord. My friend group (dozens of us!) have a main chat, gaming, tech, etc. all separate chats that people choose to participate in. Would be cool to have some sort of channels feature so you could be invite into the main hub, and from there choose what want to be a part of, or not.
I’m in the minority I suppose but I really love stories on Signal. I have a lot of friends/family on there and it’s a good way to keep in touch without having to force a notification or expect a response on their end. Maybe it’s a cultural thing too