Sure, but the main point here is switching the MacOS platform to "app store only", which they could have already done. Using their own hardware vs Intel hasn't prevented that. Do you think there's something else that has prevented them, related to their hardware? If they limited it a year ago, people would have the option to just use their macbook for Windows or Linux? Now they won't?

I'm just genuinely confused as to why people seem to think that [a] Apple is planning to switch to a locked down ecosystem on their notebooks and [b] Apple has been somehow limited in doing this until they had their own "silicon".