All malware checkers must read the app binary to be effective. Apple forces the app to be scanned once, not one million times on one million desktops.

Apple also forces every single app for macOS to be submitted to them. Seeing as how Apple has historically been willing to compete with the applications on their platform, that seems to at least have the potential to be a problem.

If they want to use your compiled binary to compete with you somehow, buying one copy per app they want to put out of business seems like a better option instead of setting up a whole notirization scheme to trick you into uploading it to them.

I paid hundreds of dollars for a Windows codesigning certificate. The Apple developer program is a relative bargain. If $99/year is stopping the developer this developer I’m not really sure what to say.

Notarization is free and in my experience it can take as little as 60 seconds for it to complete.

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/security/notarizin...

I assumed you need to be in "Apple Developer Program" to notarize apps.

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/security/notarizin...

https://developer.apple.com/support/developer-id/

https://developer.apple.com/support/compare-memberships/

https://developer.apple.com/support/roles/