Forget iPad replacing macOS, at this point I’m fascinated by the idea that an iPhone Pro might actually run macOS-like in the future for developers. It’s been a decade since the first jailbreaks were commonly available and we could run shells and other background apps—at the expense of battery life. Apple has built everything they need to keep things safe even if they open the sandbox... they could treat it like location permissions and continuously prompt, allow only some apps, spy or sandbox what function calls apps can make by default, etc. Yes, it could be abused, but they could cloud-scan files before running, or even require signing and submission. I know folks will keep pushing for fewer restrictions, and I know the business reasons that keep Apple from doing this. But this use case won’t ever actually go away...
OP is just saying that deciding to do that has a usability and security cost that some users will perceive as a net negative.
I know it’s a toggle, but as soon as that toggle exists app developers will use it to provide unsigned copies of fortnite to the kids, it won’t just be for pro users.
This is the point of contention here, imo. Jailbreaking, sideloading, and turning on developer modes are not always informed decisions. I've personally serviced hundreds of iPhones that have had all these things done because someone followed a set of instructions without knowing what they were doing or had someone else turn the option on without informing them and then they were exposed.
When I was younger, I preferred a Windows to a Mac as I liked to customize everything and make it look fun and cool and unique, and to be able to use many niche programs that only existed for Windows. I preferred Android to iOS for the same reason.
Now that I'm working most of the time, however, I just want something that works. I don't care about customizing all that much; I'll leave it to the (mostly) great designers Apple pays. I really value being less concerned about the legitimacy of things I download or view, knowing that Apple's choices to make a walled garden have protected me further.
Beyond myself, though, I'm immensely happy that my older, less tech-savvy parents have iPhones, and I bought my mother a MacBook which she has loved compared to her old desktop. All she wants to do are common tasks on it, and to accomplish them simply and quickly and without worrying about viruses.
I empathize with the jailbreaking community and honestly love how responsive you all are, and how you really make an effort to build things that bring people joy. I think there's millions of people in the world that prefer to have jailbroken phones and more customization and freedom, but there's also millions who prioritize as I do. There's a pro and con to every choice.
Heck, I’ll just speak for myself. I’m a software engineer. I pride myself on being able pull things apart, understand how they work, and put their pieces together in unintended ways. There are aspects of Apple’s control over their devices that I’ve accepted grudgingly... because even being familiar with the tradeoffs they’ve largely benefited me, and all that I’ve given up has been either moot (UI hacks that are better served with other apps or just not available anywhere anymore) or not a hindrance for my actual usage (it turns out blocking system modification has made clever things I use be more respectful of the integrity of my system!). The biggest thing I’ve lost as an Apple customer has been due to third party developers turning my whole computer into a web browser. Glad it isn’t full of security holes!