But this process seems pretty reasonable to me.

I'd like to think it is due in part to the efforts of F-Droid and others.

Waiting a day, once, to disable this protection doesn't seem like a big deal to me. I'd probably do it once when I got a phone and then forget about it.

I happen to have developer mode enabled right now, for no good reason other than I never disabled last time I needed it. Haven't had any issues with any apps.

I actually think these protections could help mitigate scammers.