TL;DR is that he says his initial reaction was “frustration” but then he goes on to parrot everything Google said to justify this.

For example,

57% of adults worldwide experienced a scam in 2025

It is to protect people from scammers. It isn’t aimed at power users (Sounds very much like “It is to protect the children. This isn’t aimed at power users”).

There is no mention of https://keepandroidopen.org/ and what it means for developers of free and open android applications.

There is no mention of statements made by developers of applications like F-droid, Obtainium and Newpipe who have openly said that they do not agree with this step from Google.

There is no mention of how this can potentially demotivate individual android app developers and drive them away from the platform entirely (here is an example of this).

There is also no mention of how most of these malware, adware and nagware infested apps used by scammers are ironically on Google’s own Play Store.

Other that that, no. I’m sure I did not read the content of his essay carefully enough. More importantly, my opinion doesn’t matter. I’m just a reactionary idiot. But I wonder what the developers of those free and open source applications on F-droid, applications that cannot be installed via the Play Store (but their scammy fake versions can be), will react to this being called a “fair trade”.

On a completely unrelated, off-topic note. Here is the same person talking about Google’s new “advanced workflow” for “sideloading apps” on Android.

The title of his blog post is “Google’s New Android Sideloading Flow Is a Fair Trade”…Figures.