> Because the store gets spammed by million of bot applications ?

They're a search engine company. They can't figure out how to put real apps on page 1 and spam apps on page 500?

Also, then why are they charging the fee if you use someone else's store?

> the week long cert is annoying, they probably want to avoid people side-loading via this mechanism

It seems like you understand their underlying motives, so then why are you defending them?