google.golang.org/grpc v1.79.1 depends on deprecated github.com/golang/protobuf v1.5.4

[ice616]

Hi,

I noticed that google.golang.org/grpc v1.79.1 declares a dependency on github.com/golang/protobuf v1.5.4 in its go.mod.

However, github.com/golang/protobuf has already been deprecated in favor of google.golang.org/protobuf, and version v1.5.4 is marked as deprecated.

This causes dependency warnings in projects that enforce stricter dependency policies and prefer not to include deprecated modules.

Could you clarify:

Is this dependency still required for compatibility reasons?

Are there plans to remove or replace it in a future release?

Thanks for your work maintaining gRPC.