Android developer verification [video]

I'm sorry to say this, but that discussion looks like a scripted show. They're creating confusion in the name of addressing it. Misleading metaphors (the airline security example), misinterpretations ('android is an open platform, and that isn't going to change' - according to whom?), non-sequiturs, skirting the real concerns... It's extremely dishonest, to put it mildly.

Their arguments hold no credibility in practice. Play store already has developer registration. But it's still a convoluted mess that regularly hosts malware. If you need to install anything from it, you have to vet the developer and app independently on your own. Meanwhile Fdroid apps can be trusted nearly blindly without any of these obnoxious shenanigans.

The day that Fdroid stops working is the day I stop using Android at all. So far I was hoping to buy a cheap android phone and flash it with Lineage OS or something. Unless I can flash a phone with an open source ROM with this nasty digital-colonization feature nuked, I will switch over to a Linux phone or even a feature phone. I won't look at the costs or whatever drawbacks they may have. I will access necessary services like banking over their web UI. But this is an infuriating bait and switch type rug pull that I'm unwilling to tolerate or entertain.