I thought the same thing but he apparently has a point. The stated purpose covers only a tiny sliver of the capabilities. The agreement points to the TOS where it (last time I looked) says service may be terminated at any time without stating a reason. Nothing guarantees it won't be used for things other than security. And finally he has a point where it also doesn't really do much for security.

If we ask their fine search engine, the AI helpfully explains malware to be software designed to gain unauthorized access to disrupt, extort payments and/or hijack devices.

If you still think the shoe doesn't fit, imagine what would happen if one managed to create an app with the same capabilities. Google would remove it immediately for being malware. Obvious malware.

I'd usually say it'd be far fetched

but I can totally see Google banning developers and removing their apps for political reasons, where some lobbying group bombs them with emails

because with this they're explicitly saying they're now choosing who gets to be in or out, there's no way for them to say we can't do anything about it

I do think this would improve security, but I also think it's sort of a Trojan horse to lock down the ecosystem

Isn’t Google going to do what Apple has been doing since forever? Or is Google somehow doing something worse?

nothing guarantees the Microsoft/Apple/Ubuntu/RedHat will not push an update through their infrastructure to delete some software from your computer

all OSes have malware level capabilities. it's literally the definition of an OS