no it's definitely not like Android. it's still a cage.

1. generally speaking you are subject to the legislator's whims here. this was not a thing Apple itself was very fond of. they were forced to do it. if the next legislatiors don't like it because they realize there are too many freedom apps there, they can reverse it and a blink of an eye later it will be gone.

2. it's restricted to the EU and Apple makes sure that you cannot just change your country to benefit from that. it's kind of a blackbox but probably they use as many information as possible to determine where you really are (and Apple collects a tremendous amount of data while you are using your phone, e.g. you cannot prevent an iPhone from constantly scanning the SSIDs and cell towers around you and sending them to Apple). they definitely know where you are.

3. Apple still has to "notarize" the apps. there are many sources which you cannot add to Altstore Pal because they aren't "notarized" by Apple