>The "wild west" model is where there is no maintainer or distributor between the developer and consumer that is allowed to perform any sort of quality control or sanitisation.
That's not entirely true. Maintainers or distributors aren't required under the "wild-west" model, but that's not the same as anything being disallowed. It's up to the community and the developer to do their own due diligence. The "wild west" model is just the free software model, it's just the lack of some central authority limiting user freedom for the good of the community.
Rather, it's the "distribution" model which forbids anything not approved by the list of official maintainers. All of the problems you list with package authors still exist, but you have fewer options as a developer should they arise.
That's not entirely true. Maintainers or distributors aren't required under the "wild-west" model, but that's not the same as anything being disallowed. It's up to the community and the developer to do their own due diligence. The "wild west" model is just the free software model, it's just the lack of some central authority limiting user freedom for the good of the community.
Rather, it's the "distribution" model which forbids anything not approved by the list of official maintainers. All of the problems you list with package authors still exist, but you have fewer options as a developer should they arise.