I think it's widely recognized that Sophie's Choice is not a choice.

Sure, but this has nothing to do with Nazi’s or concentration camps.

This just has to do with wanting to sell your apps to more people from the developer side, or wishing Google would use better materials to make their phones from the user side.

Let’s be honest here.

It has to do with needing, not wanting, access to a sufficiently large market to have even a remote chance of success.

Can you imagine anyone who wanted to make an app now, without publishing on either the Google Play Store or the App Store "in protest"? That's the option you're giving them. "Ask for more gruel or fail" and you're calling that a choice. Lets be honest here, indeed.

You know perfectly well what I meant and refused to touch the point.

A lot of successful software is not sold via app stores.

It’s not even remotely ‘needed’ for success.

Here’s a recent darling of HN as an example: https://roamresearch.com/