They might have to - while the DMA requires them to allow sideloading or alternative stores, the DSA requires them (and alternative stores) to govern the system and protect users as well as remove illegal and violating content (and the EUs level of free speech varies between member countries).

And even under the DMA ‘the gatekeeper shall not be prevented from taking … strictly necessary and proportionate measures to ensure that third-party [apps and app stores] do not endanger the integrity of the [gatekeeper’s] hardware or operating system, provided such measures are duly justified by the gatekeeper’.

People seem to be grossly under-informed (or unfazed) about either regulation and also blissfully unaware of the muzzling of free speech and the amount of censorship provisions contained in the DSA.

It’s as if the EUs regulatory left hand does’t know what its right hand is doing. The EU has an almost naive belief in the ‘magical’ abilities of software companies to make opposing legal requirements work so they can have their cake and eat it too.

Sideloading does not mean that you’re not subject to a ToS or that you will get full access to system frameworks.

This would potentially still require you to have an Apple developer membership to properly codesign binaries (like on macOS) if you distribute binaries and thus Apple could ask for financial audits to determine your income made with iOS customers.

This was explicitly mentioned in the court ruling: If a payment provider outside of Apple is used, Apple is entitled to such an audit to determine the size of the fee.

It’s funny how people assume that alternative app stores would mean they can get around paying their cut.

As was established in Epic v. Apple, it’s not a payment processing fee, it’s an IP fee:

Indeed, as the Court has found, Apple is entitled to license its intellectual property for a fee, and to guard its intellectual property from uncompensated use by others.

This applies to sideloaded apps, alternative app stores, external payment processing, etc. The fee is to be payed for using the platform, its tools, and technologies, and having access to the user base generated by Apple via their hardware. That’s what you’re paying a 30% cut for.

So how would you pay for the ongoing development of developer tools, store infrastructure, backend development and upkeep of the ecosystem, etc.

People seem to grossly underestimate how big a chunk of development, maintenance, and distribution of software Apple provides - as a developer I can just mash together Apple-provided technologies with some business logic and start making money.

And it is this ease of implementation and freeing developers up to just focus on what their app should do vs spending time focusing on how they get to a point where they can make an app do anything that is of value.