You've perfectly articulated the exact strategy I think we should be trying to follow. My entire bet is that stamina is the only real moat. The copycats are looking for a quick win, but I'm committed to playing the long game: regular updates, new features, and genuine support. I already have new updates for macOS 26 rolling out.
Really appreciate you taking the time to lay it all out so clearly. This is exactly the kind of advice I was hoping we can all get from this discussion.
THis is not only true for Apps, but also for Webapps and Services, Platforms etc.
The thing is: Depending on the product, keeping everything up to date may be a huge burden for a solo dev
This is a key point. This is not an App Store problem, specifically. This is an everywhere problem right now.
This "copyrot" gotten particularly worse since vibe coding[1] took off.
1. As karpathy, the person who coined the term, defines it.