That's disingenuous. Other platforms are open; Apple sets the rules because they closed the platform. Their excuse for this was to improve security and reliability(?) SO now they're curating based on subjective standards of questionable merit.

If the app meets reliability and design standards, why not let the market decide? Its arrogance.

Every platform was built by somebody. If I buy batteries, should the engineer who designed those batteries (or, heck, Alessandro Volta) be able to place restrictions on the use of those batteries? If I buy a car, should the seller be able to place restrictions on which roads I drive on? If I buy flour, should I be able to use it in recipes only with ingredients bought from the same company?

Apple should by no means ever restrict the ability to place code on a device that they sell. Restrict things from the App Store? Sure. Restrict devices to only use the App Store? Absolutely not.