DMA is about increasing competition of app stores. It is not about giving "freedom" to people. Notorization is an independent process from running an app store on Apple's platform.
Then if Apple chooses to serve this market demand by allowing unnotarized apps to be sold in their store, they must allow third party app stores to also sell unnotarized apps.
The key thing here is that the Apple App Store and third party app stores must be on an level playing field to compete on.
The problem with this reply is it starts with the phrase "if Apple chooses". My point is it stopped being their choice when they sold the hardware to someone else.
Notarization doesn't involve any sort of editorial control. It's just a virus scanner that's run up front and then stapling an attestation to your application that it passed the scan. It does not involve looking at the content of your app and making any value judgements about it; it's purely an automated static analysis system checking your application for known malicious code.
UTM wasn't denied notarization because some virus scanner found that it was a virus, but because it violated App Store guidelines. That's editorial control.
You're talking about notarization on macOS. Notarization on iOS is vastly different. On iOS, notarization is more or less App Store review but with fewer rules.
Honestly, iOS notarization really muddied the waters. IMO, because Apple decided to name them the same and thus presumably considers them the same, we should be just as critical of and worried about notarization on the Mac as we are of notarization on iOS.
That doesn't matter as it also gives editorial control over the Apple App Store itself. The DMA is not about giving full editorial control to competitors. It's about allowing for competition on a level playing field for alternate app stores. Since the Apple App Store also has to only sell notarized apps, they do not have an unfair advantage.
Everything you can get in an alternative app store has to be approved by Apple and they only approve stuff they'd allow in their store, making it not an alternative.
To be an alternative to the Apple App Store, it just needs to be able to match the abilities of the Apple App Store. Again, the DMA is not about freedom, but about fairness between app stores on the platform. Apple can define the playing field such as selling notarized apps only, but it must be an level playing field among all app stores.
