App icons arrangement on ipad (and iphone) under iOS 16 and iPadOS 16

Seriously?! And this was "by design"?

Having purchased the very first iPhone and the very first iPad, I can't even guess how many apps I've purchased over the years (you know... as in "PAID FOR"). I just now checked under "My Purchases" and count 399 apps. A considerable number of them indicate "not able to update". This is likely a moot point since most of them were relatively worthless to begin with, and only perform one simple function (typically very poorly).

I [vaguely] recall when the App Store was first introduced. At that point, even though a typical app had incredibly limited capabilities, the vetting process was nonetheless most excruciating! While limited in scope, at least they performed "virtually nothing" in a manor that was pretty much as advertised. Those days are long gone.

I upgrade my apps regularly and I did so within the past couple of weeks. Today, I see that exactly 100 of my apps require updating! And I can guaranty that many of them will likely appear in new places on different pages. So when I finishing rearranging them again in one screen orientation, I can so yet again in the other screen orientation.

I do appreciate your answer. And while it was not the answer I had hoped to hear, it was indeed the answer I expected! Thank you for having the only one with the knowledge (and/or nerve) to divulge the truth! As such, it is most assuredly the "Best answer"!

I have storeroom full of MacBooks, iPads and other Apple hardware and software. The only hardware I have that performs without gremlins and surprises is a mid-2015 MacBook Pro, running under High Sierra, and an iPad4, still running under 10.3.4. My 10-5" iPad Pro worked fine until I was foolish enough to up[down]grade it to iPadOS 16! I find it incredibly frustrating that it's impossible to reload the original OS on the iPad, like you can on a MacBook!

I'm currently looking for another used mid-2015 MacBook Pro to mirror my existing one as a backup. Maybe I can also find a used iPad that is still running under a older iOS as well.

Thanks again for reaching out!

[Edited by Moderator]

I'm sorry, but I do not recall the exact scenario under which this occurred, nor how frequently it happened. I wouldn't say that it is the norm, but it happened often enough to be an inconvenience.

I'm in the process now of going through and removing most of the older apps that I only use occasionally. Surprisingly, while doing so I discovered that I have duplicate occurrences of some of my apps, in different locations. In some cases it appears that the duplication is when an iPad and iPhone version of the same app is loaded. In other cases, it seems to be caused by two different releases of the same app. I just don't time to waste analyzing it.

I'm trying to get my sailboat ready for a 6-mo trip to the Bahamas. I will likely remove every app that isn't for either navigation nor weather. Most of the others are of little value anyway.

s/v Drifter