And we've seen that apps that are trustworthy can be bought and sold, sometimes by companies that are very untrustworthy.
When I used Android, I just didn’t install things unless I really, really wanted them, and they were popular enough that I figured security researchers would likely be looking at them closely. (Which, of course, was a great incentive to keep using Google’s ecosystem for everything.)
I tried iOS a few years ago, and one of the big differences is that I’m a lot more confident about trying random apps; I know there’ll still be shady apps, but Apple’s vetting and the iOS security model give me a lot more confidence. I’ve installed (and paid for) a lot more apps as a result; my phone’s much more usable to me.
Somehow we're not discussing prohibiting filesystem access for personal computers? Why is this an issue for smartphones, a.k.a. a pocket-sized personal computer?
If Windows had proper filesystem sandboxing enforced on applications, ransomware would disappear overnight