In Aurora, there is this useful but opaque option to request an app to be added in the store. I have absolutely no idea how this works back end, and how manual/automated this process is.
So forgive my naive question, but how may we help adding apps to the Aurora store, if even possible?
I would personally offer help with great pleasure. I am a software dev with very limited experience in the Android ecosystem.
are you really meaning aurora store ?? I think you are talking from a apps store or not ??
Aurora is a play store replacement. So no apps could be requested
OK maybe I got it wrong then. I thought the “Apps” app in /e/ was Aurora, but apparently it is not.
So what I really am talking about is indeed the “Apps” app in /e/, the one in which you can request a missing app to be added.
Edit: modified topic to make it clearer.
Ok, thx.
If you request an app the e.foundation will add it to the apps repository. It’s no automated process so it will need some time til you will.find it in Apps.
If you need a app from g-play store, use Aurora 
OK so nothing we could do to help then?
Is there some documentation about /e/'s Apps store?
Allow me to mention: the “Apps” app in /e/ is rather controversial among /e/ users.
Many users, myself included, plead instead of integrating the F-Droid Store better - like with LineageOS-for microG.
I think I see your point: F-droid as the Play Store alternative.
Though I would agree that focusing efforts on a single solution is usually the best place to start, in this special case I have mixed feelings. There are lots of key apps missing from F-droid, and I think this simple fact could definitely slow down adoption of /e/ 
How many of the more than 60,000 apps from the in-house /e/ app repository consistently observe privacy and data protection?
I plead for quality instead of quantity in “Apps”. Less is more.
Don’t get me wrong, I am all in for F-droid as well. If one day all of the privacy-enabled apps I use could be found in F-droid, I’d be a happy camper!
Still, since you dropped the 60k number (of apps available in F-droid), let me put that in perspective: Play Store contains 2.7M apps (that’s 45x more). Among these 2.64M apps that can be found in Play Store but not in F-droid, not all are evil/violating your privacy/useless.
Let me name the one blocking example for me: Signal messenger. I think I understand that Signal is not available in F-droid due to (in my opinion) bad decisions taken by Signal’s developer and maintainer, so not F-droid’s fault. And probably this is going to be the case for many apps, where maintainers do not want, cannot, or do not have time to publish on F-droid in addition to Play Store.
So yes, F-droid is great, and I do hope it gets to become the number one alternative to Play Store. But this is not yet the case.
No, no, I don’t think I got you wrong. I’m only interested in exchanging opinions.
In this world so much revolves around bigger, faster - we are number one. How many apps do I need for daily home use? Neither 60k nor even 2.7M. Two hands full. Not anymore.
For me, phone functionality, web browser and a puristic operating system are my top priorities. But I like the Bliss Launcher originally designed for /e/ very much.
In version 1.0 of /e/OS most pre-installed apps will probably be uninstallable. I very much welcome that. Then I install my 10 favorite apps and will be a more satisfied /e/ user.
Sorry I just saw that you were talking about apps in /e/'s apps store, not F-droid. My previous message remains essentially the same, though 
I definitely agree with your vision of a clean phone. Still, you (and I, as a software developer working for clients everyday) cannot just ignore that other users’ expectations do not necessarily meet yours (nor mine).
I, for instance, can hardly imagine stopping using Signal nowadays. I would also be sad to not be able to control my pellet stove with this poorly designed, closed-source but still very useful app. I think every one user will have its own very special, personal, sometimes niche, top 10 apps, and this must be respected. My guess would be that massive /e/ adoption will only be possible if it takes this into account.
So, back to my initial request: I do think that filling /e/ Apps store as quickly as possible upon user requests is the way to go, and I am sad to see that it seems I cannot do anything to help .