> Where the real threat, in my opinion, lies is with third party app stores. It's easy to imagine Facebook for example launching its own app store where rules f

> Where the real threat, in my opinion, lies is with third party app stores. It's easy to imagine Facebook for example launching its own app store where rules for information gathering are lax or nonexistent and then forcing its success by making the powerhouse apps it controls exclusive to it - a lot of people wouldn't think twice about installing a questionable app store if that were the only way they could get Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, etc. There's also no shortage of unscrupulous developers who would jump aboard their platform for the anything goes policies. You make a very good point. And that point is exactly why apple shouldn't be allowed to editorialize their app store byond security and privacy controls. Blocking apps that compete with their pre-installed apps, blocking apps that don't allow apple to make money off of them, blocking apps that apple disagrees with morally (adult/porn apps, forcing discord to block joining adult servers on ios) etc. Apple really fucked themselves here and they will lose this battle for side loading because they weren't good custodians of the app store platform, and it's a battle they didn't have to lose.