So the top 100 Apps don't offer something useful? I think the point is that regardless of how useful the app is, there is decreasing engagement right away. It's best to not be demoralized by it and think through your onboarding.
The goal is not to shift the slope because that is similarly negative regardless of how useful your app is. Rather, focus on day 1 where the downslope starts at 75% vs. 50% vs. 25% retained users.
I would agree and think it's equally important to focus on flat lining retention well within 30 days. Most products that fail, fail because retention falls and falls until it hits 0. If you find product-market fit that establishes a flat line of say, 10-30% retention within ~30 days, it likely means you've found a user who actually values, and continues to value, using your product. Just my 0.02
The top 100 apps as defined by which corporate entity? I would say the lists provided to me by the system I'm invested in is almost completely useless in determining quality and usefulness. I look at the list on my phone of the "top" apps and almost all of them seem completely useless crap to me. Of course, I understand they are useless to me and everyone's mileage may vary.
It's not an either or discussion is it? I think the OP is objecting to the whole "growth hacking" tricks you can do to keep users engaged approach, but it's just a guess.
The goal is not to shift the slope because that is similarly negative regardless of how useful your app is. Rather, focus on day 1 where the downslope starts at 75% vs. 50% vs. 25% retained users.