It's been a bit more than a year and it's still active. The developer was even granted a Developer Transition Kit for the new Apple Silicon, to test his new apps (despite, AFAIK, only having made apps that aren't available on the App Store). The app also takes advantage of the free 7-day development deployment rule, which is something I can't see Apple being able to change without alienating new devs from their platform. It would also be a bad move, anti-trust wise.

It's very, very clever.

Actually, for Apple, this might just be in the sweet spot of placating techy FOSS people who want more freedom, and being cumbersome enough that almost no one outside this group will use it.

I didn't expect it to last either, but it's been around a while. I eventually dug into this and realized that there is a limit of 3 apps, one of which is AltStore itself.

I think the developer is wasting his time, but it's his call. Maybe he's doing it for learning and exposure, but it seems like there must be more valuable and durable projects that would scratch that itch.

It's too complicated to get any traction with mainstream users of the iPhone.