Yes, in hindsight (and I say this as a full-time app developer) Apple had exactly the right amount of trust for app developers - almost none. In the few instances where things didn't require approval (for example querying a URL scheme to allow for for crude inter-app communication), they were abused by even reputable developers like Twitter. Glad to see Google finally catching up with Android 6.

The J2ME/MIDP platform also had runtime permissions; for example, when I used Opera Mini on my Nokia S60, it would ask for permissions to write to the Downloads directory.

The MIDP security system probably had its flaws, but it seems weird that Android simply ignored it and went with an exclusive ask-on-install model.

Agreed, but Android's made some pretty good strides on that front with Android 6.0. Just got it yesterday and, while a few apps were confusingly broken until I went digging (my audiobook app looking in a no-longer-extant path for the SD card, as apps get their own virtual storage path in 6.0), I'm pretty happy with the changes.

Sure does