Gatekeeper App Block - Reason

Gotcha, OK...

Clarified original question might be: what is the precise definition of "identified developer"?

Went hunting for documentation one more time. AFAIK, this is what Apple provides: Safely open apps on your Mac - Apple Support

(Won't get hung up on "identified developer" vs "verified developer". I assume that's simply a terminology change since macOS 12).

Per this guidance, a Gatekeeper block in this scenario does in fact explicitly mean the app has not been signed and notarized.

Interpretation being that if you've selected "Allow apps from App Store and identified developers"... then if you get one of these Gatekeeper blocks, it's specifically because the app is not signed.

Had been going off numerous forum discussions that suggested not identified developer could simply be triggered because an app was downloaded from 3rd-party site (even though still signed). But I think this confirms that's not the case.

Thanks.

Correct, but here that's not the question. Whether I want to do that or not depends on what the specific reason for the block was. And there is not enough detail (Apple gives multiple possible reasons, but not the reason) to make that decision.

Thanks those are helpful context. Agree it certainly doesn't seem like a high bar technically.

Sounding like maybe the developer license cost is the issue, but 99USD also doesn't really sound insurmountable.

Thanks.

Very help context. Appreciated.