IIRC Google solved this recently in the Play Store by signing packages themselves. But the cost was that it's much harder (impossible?) for me as a package main

IIRC Google solved this recently in the Play Store by signing packages themselves. But the cost was that it's much harder (impossible?) for me as a package maintainer to be sure that the package I built is the one I'm distributing; it means now Google can alter the package and nobody will be any the wiser. I think a lot of the trouble with this article (and the article it links about why PGP is broken) is that it doesn't specify a threat model. It makes some good arguments why specific threats are not mitigated, but rather than attempting to fix broken processes or replace specific components it suggests just throwing out the whole idea. And some of the arguments seem to point toward using a Google-style central packager/verifier but there are good reasons PyPy doesn't do this and many wouldn't want them to.