There is nothing about finding and installing apps that required Google/Apple app stores to make it easier and/or safer.

The way they are doing it is merely the way they are doing it, not the only way it could be done.

So no it was not a win at all and does not justify the method or the various forms of cost & overhead. Not just money but freedom, privacy, agency, discrimination, censoship, algorithm thumb on scale, support, etc.

It is not a win that we've given up our freedom and privacy to Google, Apple, Steam, etc. because people refused to learn how to click setup.exe.