The article also mentions that the problem is not with Android, but with some unknown phone brands.
The Apple App Store does have shady apps (see for example the recent ChatGPT clones) but the problem there is much less severe. Whether it stays that way with alternative app stores proposed in the EU is an interesting prospect, and a separate question though.
Bad actors have exploited vulnerabilities and because of that there has been a bigger emphasis on security, even down to the hardware level.
One could argue that the sandbox model used in iOS and other operating systems is a response to that era of malware. And we’re more secure because of it.
But a lot of people including myself think of them more as consoles or appliances.
And so it makes perfectly logical sense that we want the flexibility and freedom on our Mac but not on our phones.