(The App Store on iOS is just as bad as the Play Store, if not worse. They delete tons of legit reviews. The Reddit app is 4.8 where I am. Diablo Immortal is 4.6. I love my iPhone but the App Store is the worst part about it.)
You can’t anymore. You used to be able to MitM traffic globally on Android by using something like Adguard as a local VPN but Google started verifying that the signing cert on traffic actually matches an expected sender like 2-3y ago.
I assume you are referring to the behavior when F-Droid has limited permissions with regard to app installation (but maybe you’re referring to something else):
If F-Droid is included as part of the system, such as with CalyxOS, as a system app, or with the F-Droid privileged extension (if that’s still offered), then the app updating/installation behavior is a lot more like what Play Store has.