If the whole model depends on getting the cost of the device plus a cut of everything I spend going forward, it's more like I'm renting the device than owning.
It would be users demanding this, not devs, if the cost were more like a sales tax instead of VAT (added after instead of before total).
Except you're not renting. They use the word sell, so you are buying. If you want to lease something to people, you need to call it leasing and have an explicit lease agreement. You can't sell something to someone and still keep control of it.
Apple very explicitly sells the same experience as Nintendo aka ‘Just Works.’ Many people even some software developers like me love ‘Just Works’ and the only way to get that is via gatekeepers.
Either software like Chrome or Safari which restricts what developers can do, or people. And frankly people plus transaction fees cost enough that the App Store is not very profitable for them.
PS: I have owned an iPhone for 10+ years and never bought anything from the App Store. Downloaded plenty of things, but someone else was paying for it.
It would be users demanding this, not devs, if the cost were more like a sales tax instead of VAT (added after instead of before total).