funnily enough, some bits of it might be worse because ios and app store are promoted as 'being secure' period, almost unequivocally - so it ends up being a thing like 'well, ios is secure and this app is on the store, so it's all good, right?", which doesn't always happen to be the case.
AFAIK, This cannot happen on Apple.
I think that this is faith, not objectivity - which is misplaced in this specific scenario.
The challenge isn’t market dynamics, but rule breaking and predation on victims.
Non tech inclined people are targets/marks for bad actors.
Malicious websites, innocuous messages, hard to avoid buttons - are all designed to circumvent good intentions.
This is resolved with rule enforcement, retributive and governance powers.
If we are adamant about competition, then apple being locked down while Android remains open is about the best you will see.
A year ago, I also saw a fake advertisement for a squid game. These fake advertisements have already become a meme, but they also offer to download from Google Play a slightly similar game, where after quickly clicking on the screen, the smartphone will suddenly prompt you to buy an expensive subscription and then you will not be able to cancel it, because Google does not provide for them refund. This idea comes from SMS scams since j2me platform, and judging by the comments on this game, people are still losing money, especially if they leave their phones to children.
I don't use ios and won't say whether manual moderation there helps prevent the same crap, but let's not ignore that if you're not tech-savvy, this Android security alternative is pretty easy to get around.