>What should one expect to see when there's no connectivity?
It's not that there's no connectivity. Whatever they're using for metadata is extremely slow. As though all requests need to go to California or something.
> A local cache of all app data?
Yes. This is how Linux package managers all work; metadata is cached locally so search (and dependency analysis - not needed in AppStore) performs well.
It's worth noting that most linux package managers are CLI and their GUI tools suck. It's hard to make a good GUI and App Store is no outlier in that regard. Unfortunate that there's no CLI alternative.
It's not that there's no connectivity. Whatever they're using for metadata is extremely slow. As though all requests need to go to California or something.
> A local cache of all app data?
Yes. This is how Linux package managers all work; metadata is cached locally so search (and dependency analysis - not needed in AppStore) performs well.