That's a little harsh but it does seem strange that when someone is a fan of a product they will refuse to acknowledge its flaws and will see every change, good or bad, as an improvement. Maybe I'm guilty of the same with the products that I like but Apple provides a lot of examples of this behaviour.

Do they do that now for Android?

I think that's a problem with your country, not the ability to sideload.

This would also mean they can put more invasive features in their app.

iOS apps will still be sandboxed. You have nothing to fear except whatever data you yourself enter into the app.

Where do you live?

From your post history, it looks like you're in Singapore. If so, then I don't think that will be a concern - if anything, given how most government apps treat sideloading on the Android side, they'll probably block you from using them if you use the feature.

The apps still need to request OS for specific permissions before they use things like GPS, mobile data, filesystem etc.

But the point you're missing is unless you're building everything yourself, there is always a party that you have to trust. Apple likes to paint itself as trustworthy when it comes to your data, but all the anti-consumer shenanigans they do when it comes to hardware clearly state that the only thing they care about is money.

Remember - it's either convenience with a false sense of security or security. Never both.

That's really a thing? Wow. Guess you can install a bunch of junk apps to fill that corner so you can reach the stuff you actually use lol

Yeah, that too

The DMA requires Apple to provide access to all hardware and software features required to serve competing apps and services. Browser engines are explicitly mentioned several times, and these require JIT access. It’s going to be interesting to see how they implement that.

😭 i fear as well