The question is about who has the control and who has the responsibility.
There are users who want (or need) a curated, trustworthy experience. For them, an app store that heavily reviews all apps allowed on there and puts lots of restrictions on what they are allowed to do is ideal. There are also users who want to take the responsibility on themselves. They want the ability to host their own apps for free (or lower costs), faster update cycles, and just overall freedom. Those people don't want a highly curated app store (or rather, they want a co-existing alternative to the highly curated app store).
Perhaps the ideal situation would be that device comes with one default app store. That app store is highly curated and selective but it also allows other app stores on it. Those app stores can be reviewed in terms of their own quality but not on the quality of the apps they allow installing. The default app store can have huge warnings that these other store-like apps are not like the other apps and should be used carefully.
> There are also users who want to take the responsibility on themselves. They want the ability to host their own apps for free (or lower costs), faster update cycles, and just overall freedom. Those people don't want a highly curated app store (or rather, they want a co-existing alternative to the highly curated app store).
Why force Apple to make that App Store? This is what every argument like this boils down to. Apple are free to have their own opinion of what they want their product to be, and a tightly integrated experience is that opinion.
If users want something else, they can go elsewhere. If there is enough market demand for this, a company will exist and provide a product for it because that’s what companies do. But there isn’t, so they don’t.
No one is forcing apple to make that uncurated, open app store. They already exist. They want to force apple to allow that app store to be installed from their own app store.
> Apple are free to have their own opinion of what they want their product to be
While this would be fine in a free market with lots of competition, the market does not have that competition. Regulations are necessary so that the individual players in the market can't carve off their own separate realm. Apple is free to have a very tightly integrated experience with their devices and their app store and the very rigorously reviewed apps on that app store. It isn't like a non-default app store will destroy that. But that shouldn't mean that the users who are fine with a slightly less integrated experience for more freedom and control should be left without a choice.
> If there is enough market demand for this, a company will exist and provide a product for it because that’s what companies do.
There also needs to be space for such a company. No one (or mostly no one) will package their apps for a new OS so a standardised app format is required. No one will trust their phone number and identity and everything related to that to a new provider so a standardised way to switch the provider needs to be provided. Etc.
Make it so that I can switch out one part of the experience and the rest of it can't just refuse to work.
There are users who want (or need) a curated, trustworthy experience. For them, an app store that heavily reviews all apps allowed on there and puts lots of restrictions on what they are allowed to do is ideal. There are also users who want to take the responsibility on themselves. They want the ability to host their own apps for free (or lower costs), faster update cycles, and just overall freedom. Those people don't want a highly curated app store (or rather, they want a co-existing alternative to the highly curated app store).
Perhaps the ideal situation would be that device comes with one default app store. That app store is highly curated and selective but it also allows other app stores on it. Those app stores can be reviewed in terms of their own quality but not on the quality of the apps they allow installing. The default app store can have huge warnings that these other store-like apps are not like the other apps and should be used carefully.