Yes exactly, nailed it. Fortunately for me I’m not alone and a large number of people feel the same way. Collectively we have enough market power that FaceGoogle can’t ignore us, and have to bite the bullet and be on the App Store. That’s a privileged position for sure, but large swathes of iOS users are not hapless victims of Apple gatekeeping. We’re consciously in league with Apple on this.

Apple saved us not just from crappy phones, they didn’t just invent the modern smartphone and make this whole app industry happen, they also saved us from carriers owning phone platforms. If phones had stayed on their old trajectory, we’d be arguing about whether carriers should still be dictating which apps went on their networks and instead of Apple gate keeping it would be AT&T and such. I will be forever grateful to them for killing that future.

I do accept that this puts Apple in a powerful position that could be abused. In fact I think there is a case that some of their policies are over-reach. This is a legitimate area for scrutiny and maybe even legislation. However I think those areas are relatively marginal and legislation must be done in the interests of users, and the freedom maximalist position does not properly take into account the vital interest of many, quite possibly most users on iOS.