But in order to create a solution that will be mainstream enough to make in-roads into the hold Big Tech has on the market
Firstly, I doubt their users asked them to be “mainstream”, only their want for a piece of the app store profit pie is asking for that.
Secondly, if the only way to make in-roads on big techs hold on the market is to become just like them, then maybe they should be trying to find a better way.
F-droid is not going to beat the Play store at its own game. And it shows how naive the maintainers of F-droid are if they really believe that.