users in that in-between skill level where they know how to use a third-party app store (or how to download and install apps from a file browser) but don’t know how to use adb

That knows just enough to cause trouble user is probably the kind of person who is the target for the kind of malware this fix is meant to combat. As long as those of us who want to tinker safely still have a way to do so then this is probably a net positive.