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The only reason I chose Android was being able to install my own "native" apps without Google having a say. If that function is gone, I simply have no reason to use Android, I actually like IOS better in terms of UI, so I'll just move to Apple's ecosystem...

While using alternative OS on older Android devices.

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You can still install your own apps and in my case your own operating system (graphene). The 24 hour wait to activate sideloads indefinitely seems like a non-issue to me.

https://support.google.com/android/answer/17588095

How is this not mentioned in the article anywhere? I've seen similar articles and keep thinking: is this about the 24 delay or something else. It just leads to confusing messaging.

There was no issue before.

So what the point of changing stuff and hope it does not create any issues ?

Personally I generally agree with guardrails for regular consumers. The kind of people who don't want to do things like go into developer options and enable "unsafe" options usually should be protected against installing a random .apk on a device that contains their bank info and whatever else.

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