I don't know about worse. Imagine a world where there is no OS authority, each app does their own. Do you think all important apps would be updated in 10 days, including auto-updates?

Apple fucked this up, but I really don't think the situation is "as bad if not worse" than if MacOS just didn't do this.

Remember this is the same company that demands they're the only ones who can possibly decide what software their users get to install.