> Putting it in quotes is misleading, they are actually being forced:

They're not literally forced, they have a choice: A) abide by the rules of the platform or B) leave the platform.

I agree that it's shitty by Apple, but if you start playing the game (being on the AppStore), don't be surprised when you have to continue playing the game by adjusting how you do things.

Let's not forget that if Apple created something called "Apple Creators", they would instantly gain 100% of the market share because there would be no fee (assuming feature parity)

This forcing apps to use your payment platform through extortion is anti-competitive. Full stop.

Don't they already have this for podcast subscriptions? I feel like this is a direct move to get more customers over to Apple Podcasts, which can now be 30% cheaper for customers.

I'm unsure, but I'm pretty sure Spotify had this exact issue recently and decided to make payments via only their website.

But, IIRC, Apple makes it nearly impossible to offer off-app payments without breaking their TOS, including linking to them (don't quote me on that).

That's not really a choice. That's "either do what we say, or your business will be destroyed".