>Well, how could Epic continue developing unreal engine for iOS without a developer account?
I thinl this nicely sumariges whats wrong - why the hell should one need an account somewhere to develop software for an OS!
Thats a totally arbitrary limitation and as nicely illustrated by Apple - very very dangerous.
Sure and while that's still bad IMHO, for general purpose devices this should simply not be required ever.
I can develop and distribute software for my tablet (Android), Notebook (Linux/Fedora), gaming PC (Windows), smartphone (Sailfish OS) or e-reader (Kobo) without the need to open an account with a third party and be at their mercy.
Sure, in some cases a repo system account can make things easier, but I can just as well put the source and binaries on a website and any users wanting to use that will not be needlessly hindered by stupid OS maintainer policies.
The issue is not necessarily that you need an account, it's that punitive action is being taken against this other related account as a form of coercion/arbitrary punitive action. Imagine if your Gmail account was deleted because you made a nasty comment on YouTube. It would be a clear abuse of administrative power.
IIRC the Gmail & Youtube example is actually true - they are all a single Google account and if it gets blocked due to one service, you loose everything.
Thats a totally arbitrary limitation and as nicely illustrated by Apple - very very dangerous.