[crispyporkbites]

This happened to an extension of mine as well, with 10k users. After repeatedly emailing them and getting back different snippets of the policy each time, I think there's some kind of AI or a very process-driven team that doesn't do any critical thinking handling each request.

I've ignored them now and the extension is still up so let's see what happens.

It's pretty clear that the walled garden approach will eventually stifle innovation, and building businesses or even apps for fun inside the frameworks of giant corporations is just not a good long term strategy.

[unethical_ban]

This is why I like the hybrid approach that Android has for apps, at least as of 2020.

That it has its walled garden, but it is possible to install from arbitrary sources (with sufficient warnings to users of those dangers). In iOS, you can't sideload at all.

[heavyset_go]

The flow for installing apps outside of Google's approved method on Android breaks 3rd party app stores like F-Droid, such that automatic updates of apps installed via F-Droid, or updating several foreign apps at the same time, cannot work.