Comment by Wowfunhappy

> I think the "somehow" is the extremely integrated app store. Previously, if there were any app stores, they didn't really matter. It didn't hurt you not to be in them because hardly any users were either. But today it's basically just a technicality to say that you don't have to be in the official app store, and not even theoretically/technically true in many cases.

I don't think this in itself is the cause. Basically every Linux distribution has an "official repository" which is really just an app store by another name, but the system is still open. Having an integrated distribution channel is really useful!