Ratings and reviews cost money to maintain. Anti-spam, compute, distribution, security concerns, etc. Apple should do whatever they can to ensure that developers who aren't paying don't degrade the service for everyone else.

The App Store is already replete with terrible promoted software. Apple made an entire business around degrading the top search results so competitors can bid on less relevant suggestions: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/apple_search_ads

That would be a great argument if you could actually install apps from outside the Apple App Store.

Tier 1 has only exact match search.

That's fine with me. All of my empirical evidence over the years suggests that my customers are coming mostly from the outside, and Apple is not bringing me many customers from inside the App Store.

With the web becoming more fuzzy it has become acceptable to other products when you're searching for a specific brand.

But when I want to buy Grey Poupon Mustard, I don't want to see Heinz etc. If you don't have Grey Poupon, I don't want to see anything.

That's exactly how it is. Outside of a few viral apps, most of the rest are word of mouth or blog post/reddit/YouTube recommandations. Apple has very little to do with an app success which is why it is egregious they ask so much for the "privilege" of using their App Store (you don't have any other choice anyway).

This sounds kinda like what they did when they were forced to allow outside payments in the US. It could only be one link, with a big scary warning, and a 27% cut. They "comply" with the ruling by making another alternative deal that nobody would ever take. Fortunately this backfired in the US and they were actually forced to get rid of all the restrictions in May.

I swear there must be somebody properly petty in higher management of apple to keep coming with these childish moves that harm image of the company as some sort of serious reliable manufacturer.

I guess to each their own

Yep, I have been a Mac user since 2007 and iPhone user since 2009. But all the malicious compliance and pettiness has me looking at alternatives (at least for iPhone, since it has good alternatives).

I don't recognize the fun, playful Apple of the 00s and early 10s anymore. Its soul has been replaced.

“Cook chose poorly.” https://www.theverge.com/apple/659296/apple-failed-complianc...

I think Cook’s time as CEO will be remembered both by enabling massive scale for the most successful consumer product in history—the iPhone—while sacrificing the company’s soul on the alter of efficiency.