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It'd create a new middle layer of distributors to handle the bureaucracy... like with music and streaming.

That's not exactly a good thing. Look at how much publishers get and how much trickles down to authors.

You are used to Apple-style bureaucracy. It won't be even close. If 10 countries roll out their stores - most of them probably won't even be in English for a long time. Custom SDKs will add a lot of overhead on the development side. And app review madness will be like never before.

Something about the government being the supplier feels like a really horrible idea.

There are 193 countries (footnote[0]), so that might mean 193 app stores, but then some countries might delegate the power to require their own app store to their own regions/"states".

0: https://youtu.be/4AivEQmfPpk