The "wants to make changes" dialog

I have a bunch of questions about this dialog.

• What part of macOS pops up this dialog?
• How can I find out what resources (in this case) Adobe Installer needs access to?
• At least, is there a way to see what changes the program made after the fact?

IMHO, this is one of the most serious atrocities of Apple's "user friendly" UI -- asking for admin password and not providing any information to help user make the decision.

To answer the middle question: installer programs often have a menu item called something like ‘Files’ or ‘List Files’; selecting that brings up a window listing the full pathnames of all files that the installer will write. So if the installer provides that, it will help you to decide whether to install the app.