Products are available on the market to suit both preferences.
Mandating sideloading would remove consumer choice.
It would also be compelled speech, since code is considered speech.
How exactly are you affected by an optional thing that is off by default and hidden away. Apple could force you to watch some videos that explain why this is dangerous and make you read all the warnings.
Some smart developers and designers could design this so grandma is not tricked to install malware, you could even require you take a quiz online.
You also have the Mac OS example, it is not locked down and the viruses and malware are not rampant.
Honest question , can you take 1 minute and consider thins, is there a large monetary incentive for Apple to lock down iOS?
Same with your mother, she will not even know or consider the side loading app idea, this will happen only you are hit with things like your application or books are removed from your device, or a popular application is not approved because of political or moral issues.
Other example is ad blocking, my relatives do not ask me randomly , "hey is there something that can block ads?" , I need to notice they are missing an ad blocker, then explain why should install one and install one for them.
Btw my parents don't play video games, so since you decided if parents don't need something then is useless let's get rid of video games.
Frankly, Google and Facebook would probably be the first to release their own App Store apps and then use their platforms to tell everyone how this was safe.
To believe otherwise is naive.
What is your opinion on Apple Pay then? if Apple has such a large user base of user that follow every instructions they read on a webpage and put their password in random inputs then Apple Pay is even more dangerous
If you don’t think Facebook or Google could persuade people to install a store, you are out of contact with reality.
Once installed, those stores would be just as compromised as Google and Facebook have already proven themselves to be over and over again.
They obviously wouldn’t be allowed to make it so difficult that nobody could be persuaded to do it, which defeats your point.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/10/the-internets-horrif...
Here is the exact problem we are talking about, happening today on Android.
The mechanisms you are talking about have been proven not to work.
As for laptops - they are. It’s not ‘stupidity’ that causes most people not to understand these risks. It is a lack of time to develop the expertise. Many people would like to pay Apple to manage these risks for them. For those who do not, there is Android.
You are still avoiding to answer why is Apple not locking down the MacBooks ? I mean is for the users safety, are this users in danger and Apple not caring enough abut them?
The answer is simple, you can make it safe by default and let the user unlock their device(from BIOS or from a setting s) Apple can afford to hire a UX designer to make the warnings clear for average person, can afford a lawyer to put some disclaimers there, can afford some developer to implement this unlocks. The reason they do not do this is not for your safety is for money and when they will be forced to implement it I am sure you will praise them on how a nice job they did when implementing it.
You are proposing to have the government start mandating software features, which is absurd given your claim not to want the government controlling your phone.
I already answered your question about your MacBook but you chose to ignore it. The answer is that they are locking down the MacBook to protect users.
As for the ‘hire a UI designer’ argument. That has been proven not to work, but again you are pretending not to see this.