The thing about Xcode and associated tools is that they heavily rely on the entire Apple platform stack and would be quite a bear to port to other platforms. Th

The thing about Xcode and associated tools is that they heavily rely on the entire Apple platform stack and would be quite a bear to port to other platforms. The iOS simulator, for example, simply runs the iOS userland on top of the core shared between macOS and iOS rather than emulating a full device. It might be practical to release CLI tools for cross-compilation but anything beyond that would be quite expensive. Apple could afford to do this work of course, but the ROI of doing so is questionable. Ignoring the hit to Mac sales, it opens their platforms up to vast amounts of low effort shovelware — far more than already exists on the App Store. That’s the natural consequence of access to a platform being a single tickbox away. Of course the actual problem might come down to lack of tools and services that push junkware into the gutters where it belongs while putting quality apps in the spotlight, but I’m not confident that this will magically appear should iOS as a platform be opened up.