alt Hacker NewsF-Droid exists and they have a much better track record than Google. I'm not actually serious, I just think if there's a single app repo that should be allowed to install apps without a scary 24h verification cooldown, it's Google's proprietary closed-source app store that needs the scary process, not F-Droid.
Users don't have to wait 24 hours because Google Play store already has registered developers. Scammers can be held liable when Google knows who the developer of the malicious app is.