Why does patreon need its own app? Why can’t it just be web based? I wish fewer companies had apps. I don’t need an app for everything. […] So why do companies make them?
A lot of people (not me) use phone as their main computing device. […] The other app stores are hard to get to and I consider them non-existent for regular users. So, platform developers have to take iOS support very seriously or miss a lot of profit.
It’s not like Patreon would be unusable on iOS without an app.
The problem is cultural: a growing population do not know what the Web is.
Then make an app whose sole purpose is to open a website in the browser
That is disallowed by section 4.2 of the App Review Guidelines: Your app should include features, content, and UI that elevate it beyond a repackaged website.
This is why I’m so frustrated with Big Tech for killing the open web. Without an open platform, closed platform owners can exploit these rent-seeking behaviors and get away with it, making people’s lives miserable.