That's true, I forgot about those. They increase the friction of having a rooted phone though. Also many apps seem to implement some custom checks, some even re

That's true, I forgot about those. They increase the friction of having a rooted phone though. Also many apps seem to implement some custom checks, some even refuse to work reliably on unrooted phones, e.g., barclaycard. When I had lineageOS flashed on one of my older phones I couldn't get my banking apps to run, although I only tried 2 or 3 "hide root" solutions. I believe that reliably rooting is * Not an option for the general population, * Not desired by large parts of the general population, * An option taken by people that are more willing to try alternative apps anyways. * Counter to people that just want a system that works. While preinstalled apps target the general population not willing to change but may be willing to try things they already have anyways. The motivation is the same for google to have their apps preinstalled (even forcing OEMs to install them when all the OEMs want is the play store). Overall I think: forcing preinstallation is an attempt to support local companies and cost foreign ones users. For this the (small) group of people rooting their phone is probably irrelevant.