The problems you talk about are deliberately created by Apple and only fixable by Apple. If you buy an iOS device you're opting in to whatever bullshit Apple comes up with that isn't explicitly regulated away, and when regulation is introduced Apple has made clear that they will do whatever they can to avoid complying with the spirit of said regulation.

The creator of Delta is pushing the first regulation-protected route they have for distributing their app. You started this thread saying you wish they didn't.

Dealing with notarization, timeouts, yearly developer account subscriptions, it's all terrible. The only hope to ever get away from it is to put up with as little of it as possible, which currently means an alternative app store. Or you can stop buying Apple devices.