So you want to limit creativity and empower big companies even more by pushing forward walled gardens, because there are too many ads on the download page of one paint app out of a myriad?
It's like adding regexp to have one more problem.
It's like adding regexp to have one more problem.
Compare that to distributing apps on the internet where you have to trust each software provider with your credit card credentials and even if you do trust the vendor, there is a certain amount of friction just entering your payment information all over the internet.
I much prefer handling all of my subscriptions through iTunes even for services that use other places like Hulu, Netflix, and PluralSight.
Did you ever try to distribute a mobile J2ME app on mobile before the Apple and Google app stores? I know indie PC developers love Steam.
I'm very hestitant to download random software on Windows because of crapware/malware. I'll download iOS apps with abandon from the shadiest developers because I know they can't really do that much harm.
However I believe good package formats and OS-level checks can get us there without compromising my private informations to a third party in the process.
The "third party" I'm more concerned about is the random app developer. iOS prevents random developers from having access to files, the camera, the microphone, my music library, my location, contacts, my browsing history,using cellular data, draining my battery by processing in the background, etc. without me giving explicit permission.
Even ad blockers on iOS don't have access to my browsing history and you can disable third party keyboards from having network access.
Furthermore, you may not allow such an app to access your privacy, but Apple itself is above the permission and will happily gather all kinds of data about you, with your implied consent (after all you DID buy a tapped piece of hardware). That's Siri and every remote Apple service for starters, and god knows what else in their closed source shiny software.
The random developer is the least of my concerns.
Now a truly open model where people can enforce torch apps cannot ask for ridiculous permissions, that's better. Enforced by enough parties that nobody can pull the blanket.