[Bud]

13 years of the iPhone being the most popular consumer product in the history of the universe would seem to suggest that sideloading is not "a must"; indeed, some might say it suggests the opposite: that sideloading is in fact a huge plus and part of why the ecosystem is succeeding so well and users' security and stability of their devices is so superior to competing products.

[MereInterest]

Fine. Installing custom software is not an economic "must", but is a moral "must". If I have bought a device, then it is mine to run whatever software I want on it, and the manufacturer of the device has no moral claim over it.

[criddell]

If you agree to not side-load software via some EULA, does that change the moral calculus for you?

[Andrew_nenakhov]

To me it's just a monopoly abusing its position.

[ajconway]

But Apple is not a monopoly.

[Andrew_nenakhov]

Yeah right. Just today's search in DDG news for 'apple monopoly':

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=apple+monopoly&atb=v194-1&iar=news...