A. Game consoles are sold at a loss or very near-cost; often they only end up making some <5% per-unit profit due to the sheer volume of their production. Devices with direct evidence for this are PS5[0] and Steam Deck[1]. For iPhones, it can feel unfair when apple is making app store margins on top of their 30%+ per-device margins, but I support the idea that Apple's profit margins take into account app store margins and the devices would be x% more each year if developers could go completely without IAP for in-app digital purchases.

B. Nintendo et al. specifically sell these as "game consoles", so combined with (A), it feels fine that they get their 30%. For iOS, being locked into the App Store serves only the purpose of total security, where basically nothing downloaded from the app store can siphon data from other apps via a sandbox escape or otherwise jailbreak the phone for silent spyware purposes.

0: https://www.techradar.com/news/ps5-has-only-just-stopped-los...

1: https://www.nme.com/news/gaming-news/gabe-newell-says-steam-... (pretty heavily implied; Steam will also end up making money post-sale via their 30% cut)

The thing is, I feel quite comfortable asserting that nobody uses a Nintendo Switch as their primary computer. If an app isn't available on the Switch, people can download it on something else. If an app isn't available on the iPhone, protesters in Hong Kong die: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21210678

Locked down consoles are regrettable; locked down phones are an affront to free society.