Security only works if you can control what software is trustworthy. If some software has been proven to be untrustworthy, it is worthwhile to prevent all software that the producer has ever made from working at scale. Adding some nominal process and fee to make it too expensive to create a lot of accounts prevents them from creating hundreds of alternative aliases. There is a lot of precedence for why this is a good idea and works. I think if there was another company involved with performing the audit which folks trusted it might now seem so scary.
Do you understand that you are advocating for a world in which two corporations are the sole determinator of the livelihood of all mobile software developers? A career in software development should not be at the complete mercy of Apple and Google, or I suppose if you had your way Microsoft for PC gatekeeping as well.