This point is not an xor against 'ecosystems'.

You can have a 'good phone' with 'good core apps' and 'sane presets', and maybe even an official FOSS-compatible main repository and still offer the users access to appstore(s).

What is wrong with highlighting projects from the repository?

Linux media and publications spends a lot of their time to highlight worthy or lesser known projects all the time. It's a social mechanism to 'even out the chances' in a merit based society.

You can even see sourceforge's 'projects of the month' feature in their front and center page, doing this.

Me? I don't need any. My lady is always in the kitchen, ready to whip me a sandwhich whenever I ask for one.

This one needs a different perspective to fully appreciate the point.

I've been a programmer, a project manager, a customer, a consumer and also a homebody (don't worry, now i've taken up hiking and scuba diving and in great physical shape).

As a 'seasoned' computer user which is comfortable with *nixes and has all kinds of scripts and 'conveniences' preinstalled and setup on my workstations, I will have no problem doing this.

Running a quick query on a search engine, I can find the recipe or whatever content I need; commercial or not; within seconds and my browser plugins will help me strip away the ads and other craps that I don't need to format the content as I wish.

But I'm not always in that 'mode' of living. When I step away from the computer, I can also appreciate the 'bonuses' that you get from conventional living; that 'digital life' has not been able to replicate yet.