I agree that the gatekeeping isn’t a good thing, but you should learn at least the basics of the CLI. It will give you a better understanding of what’s going on behind your GUI and makes troubleshooting and fixing problems a lot easier.
Definitely not required but it is absolutely a skill worth having.
It’s bullshit because I’ve never once installed anything other than Xcode from the App Store. Nothing else. It’s not a walled garden in any way, shape, or form.
It’s a full, true UNIX desktop OS.