I find it interesting that these companies are taking something that was once normal... loading your choice of software onto your thousand plus dollar computer... and pretending that its something new and evil.
I'd prefer honesty. They want cash and this undermines thier platform near-monopolies.
yup,just even the word "sideloading" seems like its been custom created to sound shifty and sidewise when all it means is installing something. People would look at you weirdly if told them "sideloading" Photoshop on to your PC was dangerous, but somehow its accepted for phones.
There may be a little bit of vendor lock in here, but it definitely is also about security. A lot of people are completely oblivious when it comes to tech. Sideloading is easy and there are tons of guides for it, so if someone is tech illiterate they can just follow the guide and install malware ridden apps easily.
Which they can apparently do from the Play Store, too. Thing is, the sort of person who goes seeking out alternatives is generally (though not always) more familiar with tech.
Regardless, lockdown by design isn't about safety so much as it is about control.
At least they can remotely uninstall malware ridden apps installed from the Play Store, you may not like that feature, but at least it's better than sideloading a malware ridden app and not knowing about it.