I think they're currently taking extra precautions, because of this event. I don't think they were vetting users before. Regardless, it's significantly less controlled than the Microsoft store. The equivalent of that is the official repository, not the user repository.

That's like saying that github is equivalent to the Microsoft store. Sure, they provide the space for the repository. It's controlled by users though, as the name implies. It isn't the official repository, like the Microsoft store is the official "repository" for Windows.