“With everything that's been happening with apple over the last almost year it's inevitable that apple will open up the stripe but now it's nearly impossible only a few different apps can do it and under like really crazy conditions but it has to change.”

External Payments Are Inevitable — Apple Will Be Forced to Open Up

Ariel called the regulatory inevitability early: antitrust pressure and developer advocacy would force Apple to loosen external-payment restrictions. The EU DMA by 2024 did exactly that. Developers who built web-billing infrastructure early were positioned to benefit the moment Apple's rules relaxed — and the 12-18 month timeline Ariel predicted proved accurate.