Yes it does look fishy. Today we have TensorFlow lite and Core ML, but to me it makes sense they did it this way back then.
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FaceApp
[1]: https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2017/06/ios-11-brings-new-fea...
Where option (3) and option (1) appear transparent to the application requesting the permission