I am a big Apple fan, but seriously, you guys are bending yourselves into pretzels to make up excuses for Apple.
we already know what a market without a mandatory App Store looks like because it is like that for the Mac. I still prefer buying apps through Apple’s store. Due to safety, ease of use etc. But I am happy alternatives exist when I need them.
They could follow a similar model for iPhone where non-Apple stores have to be enabled specifically with a security warning.
My most important apps are installed outside of the App Store (on macOS) simply because many types of apps are just not allowed in the App Store, such as Little Snitch. Same thing for Nix and VirtualBox.
Recall also how Apple forced out Tumblr, a blog reader app (simply a window to UGC) on iOS because they didn’t like the UGC.
I fear the inevitable end down that path lies people who bought an iDevice, enabled alternative stores, were duped/hacked/otherwise-invaded, visited a Genius only to be told Apple won’t help them, and then lawsuits against Apple for their trouble.
The rest of the software world hasn't collapsed into class action hell because people installed stuff they shouldn't have on their equipment, and it's had a few decades to try. Why would we expect the iDevice ecosystem to do so now?
The hypothetical lawsuits you describe don't seem very likely to succeed. No doubt a few people will complain, and then they'll discover the hard way that there is no technological cure for carelessness and whatever other platform they go to next will similarly be compromised if they are similarly careless about what they install on their equipment.
I hate the current situation where you buy a 1000$
pocket-computer and when you want to run your own software on it
they call it "sideloading" and it might not be even possible.
we already know what a market without a mandatory App Store looks like because it is like that for the Mac. I still prefer buying apps through Apple’s store. Due to safety, ease of use etc. But I am happy alternatives exist when I need them.
They could follow a similar model for iPhone where non-Apple stores have to be enabled specifically with a security warning.