I'm not sure why the situation would be any different with iOS. It seems to me that the app store would still utterly dominate even if it were exposed to competition.
It also gives them the opportunity to normalize per-megacorp app stores across the board instead of them always being a weird Android thing like they would be if Meta opened an App Store on Android now.
Also running a third party store does not have to mean being able to break privacy protections. If the ecosystem relies on app inspections that much it simply needs to be secured better.
How do you secure something without inspection? We have health code inspections for restaurants, car safety and emissions inspections, IAEA inspectors visiting nuclear facilities… Should we throw all those out too? What replaces them, the goodwill and word of people?
Autocorrect and a lack of editing are a bad combo.
W^X pages are one of the most widespread sources of RCE bugs, and banning them by default is a good idea.
How likely is this when Apple aren't getting paid for apps any more? Who should pay for it?
Meta lost tens of billions in market value (and an estimated $10 billion a year in revenue) when the new Apple App Store privacy rules went into effect. That's a powerful incentive.
Also, Nintendo products and Fortnight both were in the App Store store.