But we're only asking for Apple to do what they do for macOS and Mac computers on iOS, essentially. Hate to seem dismissive but I really don't understand all of the fear, uncertainty and doubt around it.
FUD accusations are just gaslighting at this point. Actual experience with real phones isn’t FUD. Phones are not desktops: they’re appliances. They don’t need the same level of customizability or direct user control, and the quality falls substantially when those anti-features are added.
The reason for a "FUD accusation" is the lack of any reasonable explanation for how the experience would "fall off." The problem with Android would be exactly the same if you were constrained to Google Play Store. The difference between Android and iOS is not that one of them allows sideloading and alternate web browsers.
(And also, I viscerally disagree that a smart phone is in any way, shape or form, an "appliance". Appliances exist to serve a specific purpose. The main differentiation between an appliance containing a computer, and a computer, is that the appliance's computer hardware and software exists to drive the main function of the appliance. Smart phones are being used as pocket computers. That's not an appliance.)
Smart phones are being used as computers in the same sense smart refrigerators are. People don’t “do computing” on smart phones. The apps don’t feel or function the same as a windows or Mac desktop app, they aren’t installed or managed the same way, and people don’t expect them to be similar at all.
What's funny is, knowing some younger folks who are not particularly tech savvy, what you're saying people DON'T do with phones is exactly what they do.
Install and run programs? Yep. Perform productivity tasks, like edit video or even sketch? Yep. Writing blog posts, browsing the internet? Yep. Playing video games, streaming videos? Yep.
My friend. You can fight it, but this is a general purpose mobile computer.
