OK, it could definitely use some more polish, but this is literally the first time Apple has done this.
It takes longer to read the article than it does to install an alternate app store.
The authors constant exaggeration for how difficult it is rings like an infomercial
aka: https://i.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExaDN6ZjhyemlldTM...
Edit: To be clear I'm also in the set of people who don't read.
If Apple hasn't made the experience of installing alternative stores on their phones as simple as installing fdroid on a stock android phone it's not because they can't, but because they don't want to.
And that's fine. That's just another thing the EU can force them to do.
There's similar number of steps to trust a third party root certificate, or a set a third party DoH provider. Do you also think those tasks should be 1click as well?
At some point, you go past squinting your eyes very hard straight into non sense you know.
Some of this interruption is to scare off users who will absolutely fuck up their phones with bitcoin mining apps, given the opportunity
You can argue whether this paternalistic approach to technology is appropriate for the entire userbase, but there are definitely a number of cases that Apple is doing a genuinely good thing for their users here.