[gerdesj]

I go into F-Droid and search for "connect". The product page says I updated it 15 days ago and offers an Uninstall option. It shows 1.29.0 as the latest version. So far it looks like a second package manager working properly.

I hit Uninstall and within a few seconds the button switches to Install.

I hit install and the app is installed from F-Droid. I open it and pair my phone to my laptop.

One data point. Perhaps a knob has been twiddled in the Chocolate Factory in response to this article. There are a lot of Googlers here.

(EDIT: formatting)

EDIT2:

I've gone into the Play app and got Play Protect to scan apps: "No harmful apps found". KDE Connect is still working