> Epic has a 12% fee, while Apple has a 30% fee

Epic’s fee is global. Once you sign with them, you pay that on every install. There is also the 5% royalty, which brings the actual fee to 17% since we’re comparing non-small developer figures.

The 5% royalty is for using the unreal engine - they don't enforce that the engine be used in order to appear in their game store, nor do they enforce that unreal engine games can only be sold on their game store.

The outrageous part of Epic’s model is the global application.

What is the alternative to global application?

Charging per install through their store. Like Apple does (or used to).