> I’ve never had to help fix an iPhone and I don’t know anyone who’s been infected with malware (besides e.g. TikTok secretly copying clipboard and such), however for Windows and Android then I have people reach out to me on a monthly basis because they accidentally installed something that fucked up their computer/phone and they need help fixing it.

All well and good, but this is not due to sideloading. That is an option that is disabled by default and the majority of people keep it that way. There's sketchy apps on the Play Store itself, which does not require you sideloading. I feel like you're conflating sideloading with malware here.

> As for F-Droid, I hope you realize that their store is even more locked down than the App Store

Not sure what you mean exactly, considering you can even have your own repos in F-Droid, but in any case the point is that it is a 3rd party store.

I don't think anyone is arguing no store can be locked down if you have multiple choices.