Almost all of the apps (I found one exception) that appear above my app have in-app purchases and or ads, and most of them have a lower score than mine.
It's hard not to come to the conclusion that my app is somehow penalized for not generating income for Google.
If we had real competition with stores competing to provide the most value for the users, then I would expect non-profit apps like mine to bubble up rather than drown.
I believe we are getting closer with the recent lawsuits against Google though, which is a good thing.
It's obviously still miles ahead of iOS.
Lots of apps crank up the forced ads/other BS after they’ve nagged you a few times, and they like to that right after a dopamine hit, like beating a boss.
Basically means they will be incentivised to make their app discoverability algorithm worse, to encourage companies to pay them for ads. Kinda like Google did with ads coming above the search results forcing companies to buy ads to be displayed at the top even when you search for the company directly.