Yeah we could. But just because we do, doesn’t mean it’s the right thing or the smart thing to do. Once upon a time alcohol was voted illegal and even now marijuana is federally illegal.

I personally think it’s a shame when the government takes something interesting and working and makes it illegal. Patreon could easily not be an app on iOS, but they really want that money, so now the government has to make laws on apple. Doesn’t make sense to me

do we really call "give us your subscription money or get banned" an "interesting and working" system? That's pretty much peak antitrust fuel there. This is quite literally what Epic spent years in court fighing over.

> "give us your subscription money or get banned"

This is literally so many businesses. Are you kidding me? Get a membership at a gym. Then stop paying the subscription. And see if they kick you out or not. Or stop paying your netflix bill. See if netflix bans you. Btw, stop paying your patreon, see if you still get the videos. Every subscription business is literally give us your subscription or get banned.

I don't care what Epic is fighting in court over. Why is that mega corp the good mega corp? Mcdonalds spent years in court fighting the responsibility to pay for some woman's burns.

>it’s a shame when the government takes something interesting and working and makes it illegal.

Do you also think monopolies should be allowed to operate uninterrupted, then?

No I don't, but I get the feeling that you missed an assumption in the middle which is that Apple/iOS is a monopoly.

It's clear to me Patreon is not forced into having an iOS app. They do so because they think they can make more money. But they could be web only.

All of these entities already have a presence on Android + desktop/web and can operate just fine on those. They just want to make more money from the iOS audience.

In theory, you could. In reality, however, you're not going to. Maybe the EU will, but it won't happen in the US.