The majority of apps on Google Play have never even been starred once. It seems Google Play's users do not care at all about the majority of the apps in their collection. Anyone have any ideas why Google would allow it to become such a cesspool? Is it that they believe they can just make their recommender engines find the good ones? Or do they want to remove friction for developers to ensure their monopoly? https://www.statista.com/statistics/266217/customer-ratings-of-android-applications/
@eighthave People have used it as a standard avenue of publication of their home-made or educational software projects ("I'm learning to program Android!") and Google haven't challenged that use to my knowledge.
@neglesaks Now that I think about it, there is a $25 fee for the account to publish apps, and now you have to set up a "payment profile". These things would dissuade lots of users from just posting their learning app, in my opnion.