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Because the console manufacturers want to protect their proprietary platforms.

Protect them from what?

Reputational damage. Big part of the appeal of consoles is “it just works”. That falls apart of you start letting random shovelware devs ship whatever.

Ok? What does that have to do with the SDK?

Having access to the SDK doesn't give you unfettered access to publish on their stores. It only allows you to write and compile code targeting their hardware/runtime.

That has nothing to do with SDK secrecy.

Security through obscurity(which is often enough btw).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_crash_of_1983#Loss_...

TLDR A game market flooded with shovelware crap is a disaster for everyone.

Modern day consoles intentionally add hurdles/friction/cost to publishing in order to weed out the less serious studios.

No, that's a different concern entirely. Nintendo could (though never will) open up Switch development to everyone while still exercising judicious control over which games are listed in their own store.

And in the meantime, there's already tons of crap shovelware on the Switch storefront. Nintendo doesn't filter for quality.