This is what a failed App Store looks like. Everybody complains about the 30% cut that seems to be the norm on the steam, iOS App Store and the likes.

But getting an App Store to take off is incredibly hard, and the Mac app store is the proof of that. It should be successful; everything points to it. Despite that; absolutely no one uses it, so big apps aren't on it; and fake / low quality apps are thus more visible, which lowers the trust even more. And then you have a chicken and egg problem.

If this is your metric for a "failed app store", then the iOS app store also qualifies, since it has just as many such listings.

As far as Mac app store, even ignoring Apple's first-party apps, just to name a few, it has MS Office, WhatsApp, Telegram, Kindle, Facebook, Slack, Parallels, LibreOffice, VLC. I use Mac as my primary desktop, and I'd say that about half of the apps I use daily are from the store. As far as I can tell, the ones that are missing, are mostly missing because they can't do what they need to do within the sandbox.

I don't know if the iOS App Store is much better. The killer for me is paid-for placements for competing apps when I search for something - a clear cut case of putting revenue over user experience.

> Everybody complains about the 30% cut

Everybody complains about the lack of alternative. Apple could charge a 99% cut for all I care, but they have to compete with other iOS app providers to prove their cut is worthwhile.

> the Mac app store is the proof of that. It should be successful

The Mac App Store shouldn't be successful. It's the exact same situation as the iOS App Store, but with professional software and competitive third-party storefronts. The Mac is the closest thing Apple has to a healthy software ecosystem.