When the App store was new, the "free" apps were actually free. Now practically all of the "free" apps featured on the app store are not free at all. Half the time you can't even do anything without paying, but you only find this out after going through the hassle of downloading the app.
A better app store would make pricing actually clear before you download the app, instead of the nightmare that pretend "free" apps have created.
The app store and the Google play store are absolute garbage as far as I'm concerned.
Whatever protection they claim to offer is utterly bogus. If anything, they make it easier to leak personal information to random app makers, who, like you said, offer paid apps masquerading as free ones.
The amount of junk in the native app stores is just way too high for me to ever buy the argument that they're there to improve end user experience.
A better app store would make pricing actually clear before you download the app, instead of the nightmare that pretend "free" apps have created.