I dislike the snap store as well, but what you describe is how packaging works on Debian as well. Anyone can make, maintain a package. And there are people there that maintain even more packages.
However, there is a difference when uploading it to the repos, you either have to be a Debian developer or find one to sponsor your package first. After a while of doing good work, you can also request becoming one yourself.
This additional burden makes it more difficult for malicious people to go through.
Personally I prefer this separation of software developer and package maintainer, because that makes it a bit more difficult for malicious devs to push packages directly or for them to not package them the optimal way for the distro.
I dislike the snap store as well, but what you describe is how packaging works on Debian as well. Anyone can make, maintain a package. And there are people there that maintain even more packages.
However, there is a difference when uploading it to the repos, you either have to be a Debian developer or find one to sponsor your package first. After a while of doing good work, you can also request becoming one yourself.
This additional burden makes it more difficult for malicious people to go through.
Personally I prefer this separation of software developer and package maintainer, because that makes it a bit more difficult for malicious devs to push packages directly or for them to not package them the optimal way for the distro.