True, though the situation isn't exactly equivalent.

Using another real estate analogy -

Imagine you bought a house from Fruit Builders company. The house came with a pool.

Now unlike every other pool in existence, this is a very special pool that just really cares about your privacy and security a lot.

It won't let you use any random pool toy (it has lasers), no it must be a well-behaved toy that is rigorously tested and officially notarized by Fruit company themselves (= non-employee contractors taking one look to make sure Fruit's cut is not being circumvented).

So you go to the supermarket, purchase a marked-up toy, the toy company reports its earning to Fruit, and Fruit takes their cut.

All for your safety of course.

Except in the real world, toys generally can’t do things like steal your private data and send confidential data to third parties.

If you’re going to come up with analogies, at least do something that is remotely applicable.

Why not? You are presumably less-clothed in a pool, it could take pictures. Or record private conversations. Or both.

But sure, here's another -

You can run any company's software on a MBP, downloaded from the internet, without paying a dime to Apple. Similar situation applies to Windows / Microsoft.

The iOS model is advocating for rent-seeking in MacOs and Windows binaries.

If you are worried about your things getting stolen, currently Apple does not do a good job vetting their store.

There was a story that a Bitcoin wallet in the store was stealing peoples funds and had Apple had be notified at least 12 days prior. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39685272

So the so-called security is a red herring.

Why can apps installed from anywhere steal your data?

Surely Apple's OS/framework that they tried to say they spent so much money developing, sandboxes and protects all running code from said data vacuuming behaviour?

Or did you really believe Apple when they said it would reduce security™

Because the only reason it would is if Apple let it happen on purpose so they can create a consumer backlash by saying "I told you so".

What is the luxury of an app/software?