Seems like enough people have made a stir about Android's new developer identification requirements that they felt they needed to resopond:
Does this mean sideloading is going away on Android?
Absolutely not. Sideloading is fundamental to Android and it is not going away. Our new developer identity requirements are designed to protect users and developers from bad actors, not to limit choice. We want to make sure that if you download an app, it’s truly from the developer it claims to be published from, regardless of where you get the app. Verified developers will have the same freedom to distribute their apps directly to users through sideloading or through any app store they prefer.
Sadly, this sounds like something I like to call the "paternalistic face pat."1 Note that under the heading "Does this mean sideloading is going away on Adroid?" they say "Verified developers will have the same freedom to distribute their apps directly to users through sideloading or through any app store they prefer."
Well, ain't that the whole problem? My understanding was that distributing software through the Play Store already involved a fair bit of identify verification. Sideloading was the avenue by which developers and projects that were disliked by Google could still be installed by Android users. Clearly, if Android enforces identity verification for sideloaded apps, it means they are going to prevent sideloading of apps by projects that don't verify. This sounds like sideloading is going away...
Footnotes
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The paternalistic face pat is a move I pull on my wife and children when I want to signal to them that what they are concerned about is entirely devoid of import. It consists of not looking at them and attempting to pat the top of their head in a there, there kind of way, but clearly not caring enough to correctly aim my hand, and therefore patting them on the face instead. ↩