The purpose of the App Store was to ensure that Apple got a cut of every dollar flowing through the store. Gatekeeping quality requires more than blocking developers from uploading fart apps.
I downloaded a simple HIIT (high-intensity interval training) timer app the other day. It's just a glorified stop timer that automatically pauses at intervals so you can do exercise-rest cycles.
I settled for the second or third most popular alternative since it was the first one that didn't have a HIIT-timer-as-a-service business model (WTF... no, I don't want to create an account for a timer app).
Still a disgusting experience. Before you start an exercise there's an obnoxious 10-second video ad playing at full blast. The interface is atrocious, too.
The app was free, so I can't complain on that front, I guess. I would pay $3-$6 flat for something like this, but herein lies the problem: I can't even find such an alternative. The results in the app store search were filled with garbage (SaaS as I mentioned, irrelevant crap, bloated "fitness assistant" apps, etc.)
I could definitely conceive this app being built as a PWA and being 100x better than many of those. For this use case I couldn't care less about PWA vs. native, both could work if done well; the point is that I really don't see what Apple's supposedly strict standards have done to protect my user experience from greedy, incompetent or careless designers and developers.
Yeah, it's disgusting.
> The purpose of the App Store was to ensure that Apple got a cut of every dollar flowing through the store
I think there were competing internal forces: a desire to milk the iPhone's success, vs something akin to an Apple retail store experience. Sadly they gave us the worst of both worlds: they freely admit shit, yet pick fights with good stuff, like Basecamp Hey mail.
It makes no sense why Apple would choose to defend this hill. Either make it a Zen garden or turn it to a web-style free-for-all.
At some point their hardline stance will backfire.
Part of Apple's success is their extreme stubbornness. They decide something and make zero compromises. The consumer tech industry is forced to fall in line with whatever they want; they have final veto power over all new consumer tech basically.