Comment by rpdillon

There is a cost to a centralized app store that I never hear anybody talk about, which is that due to the perception of safety, it becomes a very juicy target for anybody that wants to distribute malware (or even just exploitative apps that e.g. charge $5 a week for a flashlight). If you can get over the wall, then you get access to a very lucrative market.

My personal hypothesis is this is the reason that app stores are filled with so much trash. The app store provides a mechanism of discoverability that would otherwise never be available to such apps.

And this then leads to what you're talking about, which is the stores actually feel less safe than the open web.