Nothing like opaque, zero due process take downs which change day-to-day unexpectedly until you wake and find your app is no longer in the Play Store.

There has to be a better way to handle these sorts of things.

Were they even notified beforehand?

A 501(c)(3) application costs at least $275 and takes 2-12 months to process. That seems all right if you're a SV SWE registering something on the side of your regular 6 figure income, but for a lot of folks around the world, that seems a largely no-go way to support their project.

If this is really an attempt at preventing garbage apps from spamming or tricking users, this is both overly broad (many false positives) and badly targeted (many false negatives). Why is it that iOS doesn't have this policy, and has significantly fewer garbage apps?

Maybe if Google were to allow third party app stores, folks could choose the one that fits their ability to evaluate the sophistication of apps themselves. For example, some folks might want to pay for extra security checks on the apps they use, while others want to install anything and everything under the sun.

So if I write a legit open source app and release it, and link to a donation page, that's wrong? I don't deserve some credit for my work?

Oh right, it's because Google wants me to have some kind of "pro" app that is effectively a license, that they can get their 30% cut of.

They don't give a damn about fraud via this method. They want their money.