[newbie578]

Oh what a burden it is to host APKs of 10 MB for people to download and use..

Let's stop the pretense that Google and Apple are doing us a big favor with hosting our apks for download. They are not paying for my cloud storage or cloud functions which my users actually use, but me personally. The only role Apple and Google have is to be the troll to take the toll to "allow" me to put a link and download my app from the stores.

I would love to just put the same APK on my website and have people install it directly.

[valuearb]

Unlimited free downloads is not an inconsequential benefit. Imagine if Spotify tried to host their downloads on a SquareSpace account, how many microseconds would it be before that account was banned. Even a 10 Mb APK isn’t cheap to host when you have millions of monthly downloads.

And then you can just ignore all the ancillary services that add value to being on an App Store, such as app review, marketing promotion, international market access, etc, etc.

It’s as if you somehow think all those services appear out of the air instead of requiring thousands of expensive employees to design, build, test, and maintain.