What's the alternative? Start supporting better OS delelopers?
If a tame product is open to outside gov, mil, ex gov and mil staff and former gov and mil staff consider other software options.

Yes the leadership of any project gets to set the pace and groupthink sets in.
The creative people drift away and the personality traits revert to ensuring the project leaders are well cared for.
No forking, no new ideas, no changes. Just code compatibility with the distant past.

Hypercard like? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Yes an ip will change or can change. Unless the ISP gives the details of that user. Who can request that?

Re "unless anything in the Snowden leaks suggests that Public Key encryption no longer works? Yes, I know it's hard. Oh well: It's necessary."
If you are found to be using encryption you become interesting. Create too much interest and your computer gets a visit?
The issue of international standards and tame academics can hold back more positive infrastructure changes.

That goes back years. The UK faced the same with the interception of international telegrams and telexes (cable vetting, the D-Notice affair) in 1967.
The GCHQ was getting a copy of international telegrams and telexes.
D-notice affair https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
The tradition of looking at all international telegrams went back to WW1.
Now its all optical :)

Why bother recording everything when that's already done by the telcos?
In the past the NSA and GCHQ could only store so much information. The idea was to collect all, sort and remove as much data as possible very quickly.
The Dictionary system using keywords and predesignated phrases would try and find new people of interest.
Later the cost of storage was so low that it was more simple just to collect and store it all.
The ability to track a message end to end and store that result for long term computer retrieval was ready for US use in the 1970's.
The UK would have had the same new options after its Cray upgrades from IBM-700 by the late 1970's.
The need to record everything is so the UK gov has its own copy. The UK could not trust that the US would keep its own data or data of interest to the UK long term.
That also helps with tracking UK gov staff and their personnel files long term. Internal UK security enquiries can then recall a lot of data without having to ask the US for help.
Every aspect of all network use is kept, everyone has a file.

Thats the interesting new part "1,693 10-gigabit connections and increasing egress capacity to 390"
Collect it all is back in the news.
A select few nations and their friends have total mastery over much of the telco networks. What if the other nations of interest stop using telco networks or just provide well created disinformation?

Yes a community know their local sounds. The 4x4, bikes, luxury cars. They all have distinctive sounds and the local population are aware of any changes.
When an army of occupation or their local death squads move into an area that news travels fast.
Special forces try to blend in. Local death squads use what they are given. New machines with loud new distinctive sounds will stand out in open areas.
Counterinsurgency is now going to be robotic? An endless war of robot patrols and local robot checkpoint?
Divide a country up and pack the civilians into safe areas "refugee camps" to win hearts and minds?
Most people found outside a camp can then be tracked and questioned?
Back to a scorched earth policy with big numbers of new robots. Great news for the robot makers.

Re "I wonder who was targeted?"
When different network where still needed experts did find a few interesting past projects:
Greek wiretapping case 2004–05 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...–05
The SISMI-Telecom scandal in Italy found in 2006 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

The code is of a quality set per user depending on OS, installed AV and all other understood networking conditions.
A consumer OS with standard trusted consumer AV and trustred normal OS updates?
A well understood open source install that a user looks over deeper OS level logs everyday?
The presence of unique new code a user "installed" and "allowed" is not going to report on huge anti-virus and anti-malware lists.
Will well understood behavior analysis on consumer grade AV be looking in the correct place?
Gov and mil know all about what AV can do and how unique code for one computer has to be installed so it is not really going to be found by consumer AV products.

Lots of nations can try. Italy had its SISMI-Telecom scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Greece had the wiretapping case 2004–05 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...–05
Now the world is seeing more software efforts beyond the expected gov tapping hardware and software.
So many staff around the world have done legitimate tapping for their govs and mil for generations.
Tame computer systems, networks have crypto that is well understood and of a weak international standard. Signals intelligence is great to sell to govs and mil. Ex staff, former staff and govs are all happy to see what they can get.

The only trick is getting local state and city officials to upgrade for 4G LTE without paperwork showing to local media or a FIOA request.
Cities scramble to upgrade “stingray” tracking as end of 2G network looms (Sept 2 2014)
http://arstechnica.com/tech-po...

Phone Firewall Identifies Rogue Cell Towers Trying to Intercept Your Calls (09.03.14)
http://www.wired.com/2014/09/c...
Will the next generation of rogue cell tower have the ability to be another normal cell tower?

Re 'Either the contents are not sensitive"
Think back to the early cell standards. Who set them and why? Emerging cell networks had to be safer from random strangers but totally open in real time to govs and mil needs.
Cost, time and who works on the telco networks can also be important to local law enforcement officials.
Why risk a computer database entry or tracked code change in a national or global telco system? A number or location is now been tracked.
Who at the telco has seen or can track the local or national law enforcement sensitive database changes?
Local law enforcement officials become the telco connection in an area for a time and the only people who have full details on who is been tracked.
No courts, no requests to telco staff or vast databases, no lawyers later, media, FOIA for paper work at a city or state level. Just all the call data.