It’s precisely because it’s a filter, they _want_ to filter for people who take it seriously and/or are seeking app sales. This is a company that chooses to pay people to review every app submitted to the app store, they don’t want millions of apps by tinkerers being submitted, and it reduces total crapware in the store.

I’m not necessarily advocating for this approach, just explaining why they do it.

Doesn’t the play store also charge a fee? It’s smaller from memory but it isn’t free

Then why don't they make it stupid easy to just make a build for the iPhone and transfer it directly?

Also, I am highly suspicious that they check every app submitted to the app store with a human.

They do? I did it last week. Build and run on device on Xcode is one button.

Have you tried Expo Go?