Seriously, I'd go so far as to suggest that this push for side loading is a bit of a red herring. Even if multiple stores existed on iOS and Android, and even if they worked just as well as the official stores, I don't see why consumers would be bothered installing them (for the reasons you mentioned). Companies will still need to list on the App Store or Play Store and adhere to the platform vendors rules if they want any chance of success.
The only way I'd see alt stores being successful is if first-party stores were banned. This is pretty much what has happened with Android in China, but the UX is a mess. Users have to install a half-dozen stores, with each store taking up a pretty significant chunk of system storage and resources and with each store managing updates independently (which often creates weird conflicts when the different stores interact with each other). And for all that trouble, it's not even as if these stores charge developers any less than the App Store and Play Store do. Why would I as a consumer voluntarily sign up for this?
The value in the Play Store and App Store is that it is a single, centralized repository where users know they can find and manage all of their software. This significantly reduces the cognitive load associated with software installation.
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Seriously, I'd go so far as to suggest that this push for side loading is a bit of a red herring. Even if multiple stores existed on iOS and Android, and even if they worked just as well as the official stores, I don't see why consumers would be bothered installing them (for the reasons you mentioned). Companies will still need to list on the App Store or Play Store and adhere to the platform vendors rules if they want any chance of success.
The only way I'd see alt stores being successful is if first-party stores were banned. This is pretty much what has happened with Android in China, but the UX is a mess. Users have to install a half-dozen stores, with each store taking up a pretty significant chunk of system storage and resources and with each store managing updates independently (which often creates weird conflicts when the different stores interact with each other). And for all that trouble, it's not even as if these stores charge developers any less than the App Store and Play Store do. Why would I as a consumer voluntarily sign up for this?
The value in the Play Store and App Store is that it is a single, centralized repository where users know they can find and manage all of their software. This significantly reduces the cognitive load associated with software installation.