@dalias @a1ba @NebulaTide There's a lot of pain releasing apps through the Play Store in general aside from this, but the same applies to most alternatives to it.
The delay for app review is at least generally down to around 1 day right now. There were times in the past where it took a week or more to get an update approved and there's no way to get it accelerated for a critical update.
There are some very painful policies and it can be very painful to get the allowed exceptions approved.