You're talking about the US case I believe. Alternative app stores were born out of the EU Digital Markets Act which Apple has been brazenly violating since day 1.

The purpose of the DMA is to eliminate gatekeepers' stranglehold over the market and promote competition by forcing them to compete on equal footing. Apple's compliance strategy thus far has been to create an appearance of compliance (alternative app stores, what more do you want??) while fully retaining their chokehold in strategic areas like notarization and core technology fees which completely undermine the goals of the DMA. They remain a gatekeeper who imposes taxes on competition and retains the ability to kill your project (or business) without a due process.