This ‘not competing on quality and price’ argument is bogus.

They are competing with Android on both.

It’s pretty obvious what would have happened if Apple had simply stopped competing for even a few years.

Having multiple stores will simply increase the costs for developers, and make the user experience worse.

A bunch of publishing companies will compete for a slice of the action using all the normal marketing practices.

What will they contribute to the development of the platform? Nothing.