> In a normal market there would be no incentive to side load because legitimate app owners would have no incentive not to have users load apps outside of the secure channel of the official app store, and users would have no incentive to go outside of it.

> Solve the platform tax, solve the side loading issue.

I think maybe for a large part of legitimate app owners there would be no incentive, but there are other reasons/incetives for legitimate app owners to go outside the official app store even in the case of no tax, a few that pop to mind are:

- open source devs might have the preference to publish their app on a community-led store.

- users trying to keep an old phone functioning using an unofficial custom android, with no support for the store.

- developers creating apps for themselves and their friends not needing to publish the app publicly.

- companies creating apps just for work phones wanting to keep them private outside of any store.

- A company providing "build-your-app-with-AI" service preferring to just provide a final apk file.

I think it's important to remember that there are loads of other reasons outside the financial one to keep the ability to install what you want on your phone. If google dropped any tax they put on their store now, the problem with these new changes would still be there

(edits: formatting issues)