Nothing new here I guess. Google has a policy of aggravating authors and developers.
There have been many many examples. The few I remember like Titanium Backup (almost?) being pulled. Not because of any issue with the app but because their website had info on rooting. I thought back then, “Really!? Google can dictate the contents of your web pages?”
3C All-In-One Toolbox was pulled for the same reason.
Before that it was pulled because they used to be called Android Tuner, IIRC. Google didn’t like Android being a part of the name. Tuner for Android would’ve been fine but not the other way around.
Ah, just found an overview post regarding the above and more…
Post in thread ‘[APP 4.0+] 3C All-in-One Toolbox’
Fairly recently we almost lost FairEmail as the dev was going to call it quits because of Google. Honestly I thought that was kind of lame. For someone known for privacy related tools (XPrivacy, XPrivacyLua, FairEmail), available from places like F-Droid, IzzyOnDroid, and elsewhere, quitting because of Google seemed “whiney”.
Not the first time he’s thrown up his hands, and for reasons not related to Google.
We also had the whole SMS and now usage stat situation.
So yesterday I updated an icon pack, Shapy. At startup the changes dialog had a “IMPORTANT NOTICE! READ THIS” which pointed to the author’s blog.
Another Google policy violation causing the dev to remove several icon packs.
At the top of his blog is an Android Police article covering the same subject.
Google risks trashing Android customization by ignoring the custom icon problem
We know the reality but it’s still sad that developers rely so much on Google’s distribution platform that they feel they have no choice but to comply. So sad.
I use InviZible Pro on most, if not all, ROMs but never the Play Store version which has missing functionality because Google won’t allow it.
( EDIT: For the longest time I wanted to donate but the dev only supported cryptocurrencies. I did not want to buy it from Play Store. Plus I thought it was worth a whole lot more. Dev eventually added PayPal. I donated a good sum and he sent me a lot of unlock codes I did not need - turns Lite version into Pro. I was already using Pro Beta which is free with all features. Bless his heart. 
)
That reminds me. For awhile I was testing out Battery Guru which came highly recommended somewhere. Wasn’t bad. One day after an update, users were presented with this…
That second paragraph essentially translates to
“Google is God. We must obey lest we be cast out.”
Developers and authors really need to look for alternate means of distribution while still getting paid for their work. As it stands, Google takes a piece of the pittance they charge anyway.
It wouldn’t be so bad if Google didn’t handicap the software.