The distinction is that a mostly sane person decided to stock Hot Pockets at the grocery store and will likely continue doing so and if they stop it won't be for a random reason.
The way it works with Android apps is if some random code quality shell script of questionable quality flags your app, the app will be removed and you will get a lifetime developer ban from Google. There is no human in the loop and no appeals process.
Because there's a monopoly for Android apps, there is no reason for them to ever improve customer/developer service.
An excellent analogy would be getting banned for life by a programmers union if anything you write ever fails a valgrind test. Doesn't matter if its a bug in that revision of the valgrind test and there will never be any human contact in the process.
"I've been banned from google and I don't even know why" is a weekly discussion topic on android development forums.
Even funnier is Google implements guilt by association. So if you have a similar email address or ip address to someone who gets banned, the same shell scripts will lifetime ban your account under their ban evasion policy.
Google Play does not have a monopoly on Android apps. It's not even included on phones sold in some countries. Numerous apps, including high profiles one such as Fortnite, have not been distributed in the Play Store and there are several alternatives appstores around.
Google set Project Zero on finding exploits for the Fortnite installer and then engaged in a media campaign to promote how scary installing it was.
I would say in addition to the "scary stuff" warnings Google employs on devices, they went out of their way to harm any serious contender for outside distribution.
Epic also went on a significant campaign to be allowed to distribute through Play, but utilize their own payment provider, but Google's monopoly wouldn't budge:
Google's Play Store demands aren't about security, they're about the 30% taxation.
The “Scary Stuff” warnings are important because anyone competent will ignore them and anyone not competent will be scared away. As they should be, because potential for abuse here is rife.
Every time a banned developer makes the front page of HN, it turned out that the company had hired a contractor or employee who had been previously banned for malware.
Like any other app not from the play store Google Play allows you to install other app marketplaces.
You just got a warning the first time you install the alternative store.
It's just incredibly hard and not worth it to start an alternative legit store unless you are huge with something that customers really want and that is not available somewhere else. (ie: Epic Games with the Epic Store for Fortnite)
>>It's just incredibly hard and not worth it to start an alternative legit store unless you are huge
Even amazon failed at this, so it is not just incredibly hard, the road blokes Google puts in place for people wanting to create another store is defacto impossible. Further they they are more extreme then what Microsoft did in the 1990's with IE that caused an AntiTrust violation and they were forced to easily allow other browsers and allow them to be changed as the default
I am not sure why Google can get way with what they do, even less sure how Apple gets away with it
Except some very few regulated things, no store has an obligation to carry this or that brand of product. Even in retail.