It's definitely becoming less easy over time. First you had to click approve in a dialog box, then you had to right-click -> open -> approve, now you have to attempt (and fail) to run the app -> then go into System Settings -> Security -> Approve.
I wanted to install a 3rd party kernel extension recently, and I had to reboot into the safety partition, and disable some portion of system integrity protection.
I don't think we're all that far from MacOS being as locked-down as iOS on the software installation front...
Microsoft is working towards this too. They wish so bad that they were Apple.
Of course, but I assume you don't really need to install third-party apps to control hardware. In my case Alienware and Dell bloat came from me setting up an Alienware monitor. MSI bloat came from setting up MSI GPU. Intel Killer stuff just got automatically installed by Windows Update, it seems.
> Microsoft Defender
This one I immediately disable after Windows installation so no problems here :)
On work we get CrowdStrike Falcon, it seems pretty tame for now. Guess it depends on IT-controlled scan settings though.
1. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/defender-endpoint/mac-supp...