The more reasonable thing for Apple to do is to separate the code-signing services (platform security and privacy) with the App Store services (advertising and distribution). From my vantage point that would solve all these problems.

At that point the code signing service would become the thing that Epic objects to the most because it's money they're paying Apple for all their games running on Apple products.

I assume that service would only cost ~$10/month, because that's what Apple currently charges for Developer accounts.

The 30% per transaction only really makes sense for apps for which Apple has provided the advertising, distribution and processing -- the App Store.

I'd love to just provide a direct download for my customers who also happen to be Apple (device) customers.

The point is that people would follow YouTube videos that promise CRACKED SPOTIFY to change that choice so that they can download a copy of a cracked version of Spotify filled with malware. That in turns reflects badly with Apple because it would be assumed that the platform is not secured and cannot be trusted with private / sensitive data (both in B2C and B2B settings). If anything, I think we should at least agree that it’s Apple’s choice whether run this risk or not on their own product.

> I think we should at least agree that it’s Apple’s choice whether run this risk or not on their own product

It's not "their" product. It's mine, I purchased a license to use their software on my hardware. I'm not beholden to continue using their software

It is your iPhone. And you can sideload apps onto the iPhone, for free, using a number of different non-jailbreak but still PITA options.

The App Store, however, is their store.