Android was already a platform on life support. Google has wielded its authority to dictate how apps should behave such that even 3rd party stores do not stray far from Google's rules. Users of android phones have little hope to run a program from 5 years ago, or to roll back a bad update in an era full of bad updates.
Android is actually much much better than iOS. For some older unmaintained apps I've dug out the APKs and most of them run without major issues, though a scary warning saying it's designed for older versions of Android.