This certainly the fitting answer to the problem, since the OP said it is a new phone and the permission is targeted to phones with android version 11 and higher it would be it. Also the reason why others with latest android phones aren’t experiencing it is probably because they installed and stored the metamask file on the phones internal storage and OP might have his on the external. So the thing to do is to delete both the file and the app from the external and then install new one, but OP needs to make sure that all new installations are set to be stored on internal storage not on external. Maybe it could work.

The link says it is harmless but even google hasn’t been accepting apps on his play store that wish to have this permission. This kind of cases also sends warning to one to avoid storing large amount of funds on non-airgapped devices