Apple will soon announce policy changes to conform to the Digital Markets Act in Europe, with an impending implementation deadline...
Who would've thought? This isn’t going to fly with the EU.
Article 5.3 of the Digital Markets Act (DMA): "The gatekeeper shall not prevent business users from offering the same products or services to end users through third-party online intermediation services or through their own direct online sales channel at prices or conditions that are different from those offered through the online intermediation services of the gatekeeper."
Friendly reminder that you can sideload apps without jailbreaking or paying for a dev account using TrollStore, which utilises core trust bugs to bypass/spoof some app validation keys, on a iPhone XR or newer on iOS 14.0 up to 16.6.1. (ANY version for iPhone X and older)
Apple is protecting the end user. Through charging a fee apple ensures the end user is really sure they want to sideload the app. This both creates more free storage space and helps the user sideload only the best applications... I'm still working on my corporate speech but that's what I'd imagine them saying