Very strongly disagree... consumers have almost no choices on portables today. Should someone as a parent be able to prevent their kids from installing other app stores to bypass Apple's curation, if they deem Apple's App Store the safest? Of course, and that's not liable to change.
But what exactly is the argument against device owners being free to procure any available app they want for their own devices, if they so choose? This paradigm already exists on Windows PCs and largely Macs too and it's very successful and the openness is worth the risk for me and any hacker I know.
For games, there are several stores like Steam, Epic, GoG, Ubi, Origin, etc and each provide reliable delivery of safe apps, so allowing consumers that same choice on their portable devices absolutely is a pro-consumer stance.
Except you as an individual consumer have zero - ZERO negotiating power vis a vis whatsapp for example. So if WhatsApp makes you get their app through X, and skips all the protections apple offers - you are not getting them to budget.
But what exactly is the argument against device owners being free to procure any available app they want for their own devices, if they so choose? This paradigm already exists on Windows PCs and largely Macs too and it's very successful and the openness is worth the risk for me and any hacker I know.
For games, there are several stores like Steam, Epic, GoG, Ubi, Origin, etc and each provide reliable delivery of safe apps, so allowing consumers that same choice on their portable devices absolutely is a pro-consumer stance.