

Progressive Web Apps, it’s just a website that masquerades as an app and can do most of the same things.
All you have to do is link a manifest file in your root HTML page and Android users will be prompted to “Install the app” when they visit the site.
You get an icon on the home screen, a full screen app view, and it can handle links like other apps. Your manifest can request permissions like location, etc.
I guess some companies will always want a Play Store presence, but it’s not really necessary for most apps.
I’m guess you have a fully staffed infrastructure team team, so the reason that has yet to be explained is that they want to downsize that team.
We use cloud services because we have never had a fully staffed infrastructure team.