[verdverm]

> If you get enough devs creating software for the fork, you can start to get users.

Why would devs invest effort into developing for a new platform? You've hit the issue of bootstrapping two-sided markets

Most users don't know or care about this side-loading issue, and when they are informed about what it means, they definitely like the idea that the app can be traced to a real human who has been validated by their phone provider. Not having those things sounds like malware and hacking to them.