>Can't see how that's a difference based on what OS you are on?
I have been a linux and openbsd user for the most part of the last 3 decades with only short stints on windows in a professionnal setting or when fixing up my partner's issues and nearly 0 experience of macOS apart from launching it in a VM out of curiosity 3 times so I was genuinely surprised and not aware of potential restrictions of app store. I know on windows there is the microsoft store + chocolatey that can handle apps updates (and possibly other projects?).
I have had the occasionnal java app installed in /opt from a tarball or an appimage but for me apps individually phoning home is more the exception than the norm. I usually have one process connecting to n repos, n being less than 5 usually and usually only when I am querying it manually. In recent years on Fedora I've let gnome software app connecring automatically and I guess with some flatpaks installed I am querying 2 flatpak repos (fedora +flathub) more but that's about it and most of our distro packages have telemetry and users counts disabled.
What I mean is: assume you use a software update system (Whether it's a "store", a "package manager" or just my own system I set up for one single app - it's irrelevant). The system needs to "phone home" to query what updates there are. There is no way around it. And unless you want to submit to a centralized store (Steam, a linux package repository, Windows store) then you are usually left to make the call individually for each app. And that applies regardless of OS of course. A self-updating linux app that dowloads its patch from acme inc is no different from the same app running under windows. It might be more or less idiomatic to do so for an individual app under different OS'es, but technically it's of course the same thing.
I have been a linux and openbsd user for the most part of the last 3 decades with only short stints on windows in a professionnal setting or when fixing up my partner's issues and nearly 0 experience of macOS apart from launching it in a VM out of curiosity 3 times so I was genuinely surprised and not aware of potential restrictions of app store. I know on windows there is the microsoft store + chocolatey that can handle apps updates (and possibly other projects?).
I have had the occasionnal java app installed in /opt from a tarball or an appimage but for me apps individually phoning home is more the exception than the norm. I usually have one process connecting to n repos, n being less than 5 usually and usually only when I am querying it manually. In recent years on Fedora I've let gnome software app connecring automatically and I guess with some flatpaks installed I am querying 2 flatpak repos (fedora +flathub) more but that's about it and most of our distro packages have telemetry and users counts disabled.