This is mostly to deter malicious behavior because it makes it unprofitable for bad actors to publish malware by spamming the store with dumb apps that are only life-support systems for their little packages of joy.

It's a high enough bar to trip up a lot of bad actors, but low enough that it's a simple annoyance for most of us.

But yeah, reason 4,590,234,761 why people who misbehave make things more expensive/difficult/time-consuming for the rest of us.