[gdavisson]

It's not that macOS doesn't trust you, it's that macOS doesn't trust the programs you're running. Specifically, it doesn't trust the programs to do what you want them to, and only what you want them to.

And it's not just a matter of protecting you against out-and-out malware (although that's certainly part of it), it's a matter of protecting you against developers whose interests don't entirely align with yours. Developers who really want to spy on their users seem to be the biggest group (see, for example, the recent Apple vs. Facebook kerfuffle).

Unfortunately, distrusting software does add friction, especially if you add (/update-via-unsupported-mechanisms) new software frequently. "Are you sure you meant to run this program? It looks weird to me; I think you should get rid of it. Should it really have access to your contacts/camera/etc?" macOS is acting a little like an overprotective parent here, and it's certainly annoying. But the threats it's trying to protect you from are real. You can turn the protections off (with a certain amount of work), but then you're vulnerable to all the stuff it's there to protect you from.

P.s. I don't mean to completely defend Apple here. Their preferred solution is to have all software distribution go through their App store... where they get a cut of the price. Which means they're also on the list of developers whose interests don't entirely align with yours.

[smoldesu]

I understand what Apple's intentions here are, but abstracting away a security risk is only inviting disaster, and it's kinda endemic of an issue throughout Apple's ecosystem: their whole game is about reducing the power of the end user. It makes sense from some angles, security being one, but it also impedes the freedom of choice. Instead of engineering their software to appeal to the lowest common denominator, they should be empowering people who want to push beyond that envelope and offering extensibility to those who want to take advantage of it.

[kevincox]

This is a weird way to justify it.

I told macOS to run that program because I trust it. If macOS trusts me then it transitively trusts the program I told it to run.

In other words macOS doesn't trust me to validate programs before I try to run them.