The average person searching for Microsoft Word, which is on the App Store, gets screens of templates and junky overpriced apps.
It just happens to also have a few software people actually need. But those apps are like a single tiny oasis in the middle of the Sahara desert.
I think they just (A) have no idea what they're doing when it comes to search and (B) the scamware that fills all their App Stores makes Apple a ton of extra money compared to people finding the real apps which usually are monetized outside the app store due to Apple's absurd revshare.
A lack of oversight is what I see as the problem, and the solution would require a significant human element.
Expecting a retailer to know/inspect the product they collect margins on shouldn't be a big ask.
The retailer has to know what they're selling, but Apple seems to turn a blind eye to shady listings because of the way Mac App Store results are shown and the lack of useful filtering available to the user.
But they don’t protect their cash cow from massive daily influxes of scam apps. It’s better one million scam apps generating 50k per month and drowning my two or three apps for which I spent months of work than a few thousand quality apps from which everybody would profit.
Let’s be real it takes a special kind of mad developer to try to make a business that relies on the AppStore. First if you are unlucky you get rejected on day one or two. And if you aren’t and are wildly popular you risk Apple copying your business model.
Because deep down some people at Apple despise the App Store developers and think they can do much better. This has been at the core of Apple culture for ages.
Anyway we legit indie developers who care about our products get drowned in irrelevance. Who cares.
Well, that's what you expect as a user and as a technology person, but as the TFA demonstrates, this doesn't apply to Google without an ad-blocker.
Have you seen the Microsoft app store?
Don't give them ideas
In fact, I just tried searching for "Microsoft Word" in the Mac App Store, and it was the first hit (with other Office apps coming next).
I did a search for "Instapaper" and again, first hit.
On my iPhone I did the same thing, there was a single sponsored app as the first item (and oddly completely unrelated), and the first app after that was the one I typed.