Should anybody be able to post anything they want on HN or YouTube or Facebook etc.? They can't.
Does Epic allow anyone to sell content for Fortnite without giving Epic any money? They don't.
Apple should ask for compensation proportionate to the value they are providing Epic. Which they do, in the form of paid Apple developer accounts, and a 30% cut on services Epic is using.
For instance, if you choose to make your app free, Apple won't get that 30% cut on sales. This doesn't mean they are magically entitled to money as compensation - the transaction simply didn't happen. If they don't like that arrangement, maybe they should charge more for developer accounts?
The walled garden isn't a surprise, it's a feature.
You already do. Mechanics do this all of the time with aftermarket firmware.
> How about medical devices or any of the gaming consoles
Jailbreaking is explicitly legal.
That said, of course developers built the market, but not every developer built the market. Apple developers built it. Other developers have chosen to sell inside of it.
Without Apple Developers creating the store itself those developers couldn't sell anything. Apple could 100% do that if they wanted. In fact, the first iPhone was as such.
Make it possible to unlock iOS ability to sideload apps, either through a unique code, a security certificate, or a simple toggle and allows businesses to lock down (but not remotely enable) this ability using their MDM.
Of course, put the usual disclaimer that enabling this feature could weaken the device security, and don't simply enable it because an app or a website told you so.
Many practices which would be perfectly legally normally, become illegal if your company is large enough.
The market for iPhone apps is much much larger than the market for fortnite skins.
If the market for specifically fortnite skins was 50 billion dollars a year, then maybe you would have a point, but it is not.