I've thrown all my 32-bit games overboard and upgraded to macOS Catalina. I notice that the current PICO-8 binary (0.1.12c) asks for broad keyboard permissions (read keystrokes in all applications). I assume this permission isn't actually needed (I can deny it and everything seems to work) and this is a side effect of an older SDL macOS interaction. It'd be nice if the app can be configured to not ask for the permission.

If it is used for something I'd enjoy knowing what it is.

You get the same permissions asked when installing carts on to your Tablet. It could be the behavior of the code is triggering this. As you said it runs just fine without agreeing.

I sometimes run a new Windows application here and it gets all fussy saying it wants global access to the internet or ability to accept remote keystrokes. I deny it every time and the program works just fine.

This was not current in Windows 8.1 so I suspect security is getting to be an all-time high with modern Macintosh, Windows, and Tablets.

Deny, fire and forget - best I can offer.

The bug report is for the PICO-8 macOS binary, which can and should be modified in a future version to not trigger a request for this permission under Catalina, if it is not needed.