I'd rather not have to go through this ritual, but I appreciate that there is a genuine security problem that google are trying to address. I also suspect that they have other motivations bound-up in this - principally discouraging use of alternative app stores. But basically I could live with this process.

Yeah, I know... Stockholm syndrome...

Although I may not have to live with it, as none of my present devices are recent enough to still receive ota updates.

Context: I don't use alternative app stores. I occasionally side-load updates to apps that I've written myself, and very occasionally third party apps from trusted sources.

I don't think developers targeting alternative app stores would care much about having to perform verified developer registration. Particularly apps that are available in both Play Store and alternative app stores.