> Now it's a lot harder to quickly notice what's an ad and what isn't.

Everything in the app store is an ad - all the content is produced to get people to download Apps. It's just that some is 'promoted'.

I'd be interested in hearing from any HN readers that use the App store to actually discover apps - don't people do Web/Reddit searches to see what people are using and rate and then search by name? Even an LLM can provide an overview of what's available and summarise features, drawbacks, and reviews.