Before UPGs, every user would have `users` or something similarly generic as their primary group, and it was intentional that everyone's homedir allowed read access to that group for the purpose of sharing files between users.
With UPGs, every user will have a bespoke primary group, so having group access to the homedir is not a problem. Whether the distro still keeps the other-readable bit is up to the distro. For example, OpenSUSE used to be in the pre-UPG 0755 camp, but switched some time ago to the UPG 0700 camp.
The default UPG usage and homedir permissions are controlled by USERGROUPS_ENAB and HOME_MODE in login.defs (under /etc or /usr/etc, depending on your distro).
> For example, OpenSUSE used to be in the pre-UPG 0755 camp, but switched some time ago to the UPG 0700 camp.
When was this? 15.4 doesn't have user per group by default, nor does it have 0700 on $HOME by default. I have several fairly recent installs around I checked. Something in Tumbleweed perhaps? My last Tumbleweed install was last year sometime and does not have user per group nor 0700 $HOME.
I got around to checking, and turns out that my Tumbleweed installs are creating new users with 0700 home directory now. I didn't think to try creating a new user in my earlier checks, I just checked the existing users I've had. New users are still 0755 home directories on 15.4 though.
With UPGs, every user will have a bespoke primary group, so having group access to the homedir is not a problem. Whether the distro still keeps the other-readable bit is up to the distro. For example, OpenSUSE used to be in the pre-UPG 0755 camp, but switched some time ago to the UPG 0700 camp.
The default UPG usage and homedir permissions are controlled by USERGROUPS_ENAB and HOME_MODE in login.defs (under /etc or /usr/etc, depending on your distro).