Comment by thisislife2

This is just an extension of the increasing censorship and government / BigTech control that we have been witnessing in the past few years, with Google seeking the ability to prevent installation of any apps that is on a blocklist controlled by the government. And, like with the iDevices, this will also kill many free independent and open source apps once developers are forced to pay for "developer verification". "Free" apps are an anathema to the App Store business model.