Yes going around to different stores to find the best price is annoying, but you are under no obligation to do it. You can't say shopping around is a worse experience for the end user because it is a problem entirely of their own making. If shopping around is that much of a hassle you could always just stick to the Apple App Store.
Same with Netflix, and Hulu, and Prime, and Disney, and HBOgo, and on and on and on. As a user it’s on my shoulders to navigate all this complexity. Yuck!
This whole “single AppStore” thing is only a big problem to developers. That’s why it gets so much attention and air time here because only developers whine about it and we are all developers. As an end user I just want one app distribution system to worry about.
Imagine if toilet paper is only sold at walmart, and paper towel is only sold at target. This already happens for some things of course, and for those in physical stores it's still annoying. This is a large part of the reason I shop on Amazon. Most stuff I want are there.
If epic wins, they’ll eventually raise prices and reap all the profits. Why wouldn’t they?
This is a problem because each of these stores use their own proprietary client. If instead they all used a public API then there could be an open source client that can access any of the stores.
We of course already have a possible client: the web browser. It works great for all sorts of e-commerce sites. It just doesn’t work for installing games from these stores. That could be changed, though.
I think if Apple is forced to open iOS to alternative stores, then I would like to see an API based approach. Force all the stores to compete within the same app, so they’re only competing on price and selection.
Companies with power and leverage won’t switch to an “open api” and generic ui. It’s better for them to offer their own proprietary experience and to be able to improve it.
Even if what you described was something companies would buy into... sounds like instead of N App Store programs to run, there’s be N App Store websites/urls to visit. what about payments? You’d need a trusted platform operator to avoid everyone having their own payment system and users having to enter details multiple times.
Also API to WHAT? Every App Store on windows has api access... to the os and install mechanisms. Any further value add services will require a trusted online partner (payments, security reviews, downloads?).
Gog Galaxy already exists, too.
Competition focuses on price with a presumption that quality won’t suffer because users will switch. Well that isn’t necessarily so, it’s a hope rather than a hard fact. There are many examples, that I leave as an exercise to the reader, where a customer “chooses” a lower cost item with poor quality, including harmfully so.