With the continuing security problems, it is increasingly being proven out that Apple got the app ecosystem right, from the get-go, with their walled garden approach. The benefits of such vastly outweigh the costs to a few tinkerers (and malicious actors) when you're building a product for the average bear.
that is the worst idea I have heard in a long time. what happens to developers, like me, that cannot afford a "paid developer account"? and whats to stop Google (or Apple) from raising the fee so high that it prices out important people from the process?
I think this is confusingly phrased and the replies relate to that confusion.
A free Apple developer account allows 'sideloading' for a limited time, currently a week IIRC, and a paid account extends this to a year, which is technically limited but probably not what most people would understand by the phrase.
If you do have a developer account, your device only has to connect to your home WiFi network once a year for your computer to keep the app authorized.