If by "hoop" you mean "workaround," yes. But normies are used to starting applications by double-left-clicking them, and there's nothing in the error message that appears after that indicating it can be worked around. Unless the normie thinks to ask a friend or the internet how they can go ahead and open the app anyway, they'll never find out about it.

To come at it from another direction, why is it your users' responsibility to work around your own cheapness/laziness? Just front the $100 and sign your damn app, especially if you're making money with it.

As Cyberdog says, the hoop is that a lot of regular users do not know about.

Moreover, signatures and notarization are there for a reason. Code signing makes it more likely that the bundle was not tampered with. Apple can revoke the certificate if the developer key leaked. Notarization will catch at least some forms of malware.

I refuse to run unsigned code (with one exception), because it decreases security significantly. There have also been severe incidents in the past with unsigned code, e.g.:

https://blog.malwarebytes.com/threat-analysis/mac-threat-ana...

in some cases, it can't be installed at all depending on the privileges.