> Because going into F-Droid and clicking "update" is too hard? Yes. The average user doesn't even understand what updates are for and the extra inconvenience for everyone else is just an anti-competitive practice masquerading as a security feature.

Not sure if you're aware, the current way is to tap Update, which downloads the APKs for each installed app. Then, for each app, you need to tap Install, wait 0.1-2s, then tap Install again, then wait until the update is done. I currently have around 20 installed from the store.

This all is to show that Google is low-key hostile to apps installed from sources other than the Play store. Which was the point of the parent comments.

You still need to install and approve the native popup for each individual app update.

If you have more than a handful of F-Droid apps, it gets quite tedious.

I bought a new phone just this week, and I'm looking forward to putting a custom ROM on it in part also to have more control over this sort of thing.