I wouldn’t say very. Didn’t Fortnight bypass the play store by using a direct/side-load install? Those things can only be done with design level decisions being made in a product.
Definitely, I meant that they were only able to circumvent the Play store because of the settings/admin/root access etc intentionally left open by the core product team.
To clarify, the article doesn't mention that they were stopping iPhone users to install the app, only Android. I'm not too familiar with the method/tech though. If by design, Android had a more closed ecosystem, they couldn't force it so casually. I'm personally not a fan of that approach, but could see the benefits when under this type of government.