> Is Apple really going to keep playing this game of gatekeeping until legislation forces them not to?

Is Apple going to kill the golden goose unless it is literally forced to? Of course not.

Apple, together with Google, get a cut of 15% to 30% of all mobile app revenue. They have the entire market captured. They will only give that up when they're forced to.

Google has allowed alternate app stores for a long time though. Just being the default is good enough to capture a lot of revenue.