I don’t use the platform so I’m not as familiar to if this is general nationalist issue or about specific practices in TikTok. I do think this is a slippery slope, though. Im afraid our elected officials are just too far behind on Technology to look at the broader issues on privacy and technology - this might pass simply because they can slap “not US = bad” on a campaign bus. It likely will boost VPN usage and/or drive people to less mature and even less privacy concerned services.
I think side loading is an important point. You can even side load apps on a Mac so Apple is going to have a difficult time arguing this one. It’s fine to not allow it by default and adding the extra steps to enable it.
I’ll admit I am torn on this. Before the iPhone really took off in the US the mobile carriers were in control. Does anyone remember having to pay for GPS and navigation and similar things through Verizon or whoever as add-ons? I do not miss those days, Apple (and Google) have done a lot to improve mobile experience since then.