Yes, but no-one does. Those stores only make sense if you have installed a de-googled AOSP, and their offering is maybe half a percent of what's on Google Play. It's an option for hackers, tinkerer and developers.
I guess it's nice the option exist, but in practice it make no difference. Most consumers are not even aware that you can sideload apps or that there's alternative app stores.
But the point is always about the capability. I am using Android because ios is lacking the things I want. For example, granular volume control ( even the lowest volume on iphone is still too high for me sometimes), firefox
Android's store management is not different from windows. You can completely ignore it/install your own store/install your own apk. Not sure why people keep bring it up in Apple's case.
I am still waiting for Apple to let me install the real Firefox