I feel the App Store is one thing differentiating Apple from Android phone manufacturers.
Money from the App Store gets reinvested in the entire iPhone supply chain. Whereas in the case of Android, App Store money goes to Google only.
It also encourages Apple to support their phones long term as its preferred that you stay on your aging iPhone and keep spending at the App Store then risking you leaving the Apple ecosystem because Apple allows their older phones to become obsolete. Android manufacturers on the other hand have every incentive to obsolete your phone ASAP because you buying a new phone is the only way they make money.
Do you seriously believe this?
It's Apple that's blocking you from installing any apps or updates when you don't receive iOS Versions Updates anymore, while Google Play doesn't care about it, as long as the app itself is still developed for that version.
Also they make more than enough money from the Hardware itself, they just take the profits off the software purchases.
No, Xcode requires you to have an up-to-date MacOS to develop, not iOS.
However, developers are strongly encouraged to raise their apps' minimum iOS versions since Apple does not backport any APIs to older versions, any new thing presented at WWDC is only for the new iOS version. This also applies to bugfixes in some cases (SwiftUI).
So as a developer you either stagnate your knowledge or keep moving forward. Google does backport many APIs, so the issue isn't as problematic on that end.
Money from the App Store gets reinvested in the entire iPhone supply chain. Whereas in the case of Android, App Store money goes to Google only.
It also encourages Apple to support their phones long term as its preferred that you stay on your aging iPhone and keep spending at the App Store then risking you leaving the Apple ecosystem because Apple allows their older phones to become obsolete. Android manufacturers on the other hand have every incentive to obsolete your phone ASAP because you buying a new phone is the only way they make money.