Allowing other stores doesn't mean you have to use them. You could still have your curated experience on the Apple store. Why do you want to impose your views on others?
One hoop. Turn on one setting, from there it's just clicking to download an apk and approving the dialog box.
The real reason it's hard to distribute your application outside of Play store is discovery.
I and my software friends/colleagues might be capable of avoiding this malware (assuming you don’t consider Zoom and such to be malware), but my family and everyone else I know are not. I suspect 70+% of the user base could easily be tricked into installing malware that would spam them with sex notifications, hijack their search engine, etc.
This isn't even hypothetical. Spotify already refuses to add features to the Apple Watch.
This discussion is moot. Apple only has to lower it's cut to cost + a reasonable markup instead of abusing it's position to charge 30%. Then everybody can be happy.
Also, there is no reason to believe any percentage is too high or too low. 30% is what Apple has charged since day 1 when it had no position whatsoever. You will need to explain exactly at which point in time 30% became problematic.
In the end it doesn't matter how Apple and Google got to this duopoly position of power, if it was fair or of they had to work hard. The fact that matters is where they are now.