Nope. The point was to create competition for the "30%" revenue cut that Apple takes. Now app developers are free to use marketplaces which take a smaller fee, in exchange for perhaps less discoverability / market penetration.

Every app on alternative app stores still[0] has to be "notarized" by Apple and thus are still subject to a subset of Apple's App Review Guidelines[1]

0: https://altstore.io/app-guidelines.html

1: https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#int...

Only in part. Apple can still require apps to be approved for distribution in the EU. The process is meant to be less restrictive and only flag apps that are malicious in nature. However Apple has put their thumb on the scale a couple times now trying to see how much control they can claw back.

Don't forget that Apple is the same company that decided to ignore a judges order in the US until the judge threatened to start arresting people. They are not happy about this arrangement in the EU and it has been called noncompliant with the DMA since the start.