>> Then they can't provide auto-updates but require a manual confirmation for each version update.
> Again, how is this a deterrent? How many times a day do you have to accept the new changes?
That would be about 10 times a day on average (sometimes 3, sometimes 30) for me. I have 125 apps installed from F-Droid (no google services, two external apps: Signal and the local contact tracing app), it would be a chore to update them without privileged extension, especially as some of these are nightly and get updated everyday.
> We've already established that the official store will always be designed to provide the best experience ootb compared to the 'installed' one.
F-Droid gives me a better experience, except for the bugs. Now, it's intentionally crippled by Google, so you can call Google Play "designed for a better experience" if you want.
I picked the platform due to the features, not due to the store "expericence". I would like to pick that one separately, my best experience is different from yours.
> This is true for all the other platforms where you need manual intervention to install/maintain apps "unofficially".
Not true. On windows, most auto-updaters do not need user confirmation to perform updates. Most platforms have package managers that can auto-update their packages (steam, npm, pip, texlive, nix, aptitude, pacman, apk, flatpak, whatever). Their access to the system isn't artificially restricted.
Granted, a number of these package managers could work on Android today (like a chroot), but that would be a subpar experience.
> Again, how is this a deterrent? How many times a day do you have to accept the new changes?
That would be about 10 times a day on average (sometimes 3, sometimes 30) for me. I have 125 apps installed from F-Droid (no google services, two external apps: Signal and the local contact tracing app), it would be a chore to update them without privileged extension, especially as some of these are nightly and get updated everyday.
> We've already established that the official store will always be designed to provide the best experience ootb compared to the 'installed' one.
F-Droid gives me a better experience, except for the bugs. Now, it's intentionally crippled by Google, so you can call Google Play "designed for a better experience" if you want.
I picked the platform due to the features, not due to the store "expericence". I would like to pick that one separately, my best experience is different from yours.
> This is true for all the other platforms where you need manual intervention to install/maintain apps "unofficially".
Not true. On windows, most auto-updaters do not need user confirmation to perform updates. Most platforms have package managers that can auto-update their packages (steam, npm, pip, texlive, nix, aptitude, pacman, apk, flatpak, whatever). Their access to the system isn't artificially restricted.
Granted, a number of these package managers could work on Android today (like a chroot), but that would be a subpar experience.