See? All y'all doomposting about sideloading were worried for nothing. Just like on Android the convenience of the main app store is too much to ignore so y'all are gonna be fine.
Yes, we
will be fine... but not necessarily for the reasons you seem to assume. The risks associated with sideloading are still real and valid; I think what this story might be missing is an explanation of exactly what Apple is trying to do to mitigate those risks. Of course, those details are currently largely speculative... but here's my own take on what I think is probably going on.
First off, it's important to note that Apple's argument for maintaining a single authoritative iOS App Store has all along been a matter of security. Never once have they veered from that argument. Epic (and others) have consistently maintained that it's only a monopolistic financial blockade which "unfairly" enriches Apple, which is clearly why several governmental entities have been willing to offer them a sympathetic ear. However, if Apple finds a way to retain
veto power over what can be loaded onto any given iOS device, regardless of whether it came from Apple's App Store or (for example) Epic's App Store*... then the risk surface doesn't change, even if the impact of the financial blockade ends up being more limited. Therefore, it is clearly in Apple's best interests (politically) to demonstrate the reality of their previous assertions by particularly focusing upon ways to eliminate those security risks in a "multi-App-Store" world that may soon to be our shared reality.
To that end: My suspicion, based upon recent rumors, is that Apple is planning to continue requiring that app developers obtain the digital certificates for development of their apps directly from Apple. This means that regardless of which iOS app store sells a developer's apps, the developer still must maintain a positive relationship with Apple as well, because if a developer is identified as a malware purveyor or some other type of malicious entity, Apple would still have the power to unilaterally revoke that developer's cert, thereby disabling their apps on all iOS devices. Thus, the risk factors only change very minimally from the current state of affairs.
* Mind you, in my hypothetical scenario above, Epic wouldn't
actually get to release their own app store -- let alone any other apps -- since they no longer have a positive relationship with Apple... but perhaps that's really only peripherally related to this topic, in spite of the article's header image.