Comment by zimpenfish

> This will also prevent distribution from outside of their appstore giving it will prevent updates.

I think that if an app is correctly codesigned, Gatekeeper has no issue with it. Also if it's not correctly codesigned but you've ticked "allow unsigned binaries", you can still run them.

> the mothership knows everything you run on your machine

I can't remember the details from the last time this came up but IIRC it only sends a hash and possibly even then only the first time you launch it. Either way, they're not going to block out-of-appstore distribution except if you're a known malicious actor.