Google would rather block potential competition than attempt to fix their own product.
The Playstore is inundated with fake reviews and paid for discoveribility, pushing awful predatory apps to the top.
Many (I assume, it was several from my small collection) niche clean apps left the play store after increased requirements proved not worth the hassle for the small Devs.
Lots of people report issues with Google Play cards.
Lots of people report being billed for things that they did not consent to.
And as a cherry on top, Google has recently started billing cc chargeback fees to developers. I don’t know a single other large digital shop platform that does this. More costs and more administration for Devs, which will make the Playstore even less attractive for hobby Devs with a niche passion project.
Google would rather block potential competition than attempt to fix their own product.
So the Playstore sucks and it burns too many of their potential customers, resulting in churn instead of retention. Consequently it has seen very little growth since Covid: https://www.businessofapps.com/data/google-play-statistics/ . The potential for growth was there though, as can be seen with the apple app store: https://www.businessofapps.com/data/apple-app-store-statistics/
And as a cherry on top, Google has recently started billing cc chargeback fees to developers. I don’t know a single other large digital shop platform that does this. More costs and more administration for Devs, which will make the Playstore even less attractive for hobby Devs with a niche passion project.