Android launchers ask to the system which apps are installed and which shortcuts were added, it’s not like desktop OSes

They aren’t installed to a folder that the homescreen just displays, the homescreen launcher just asks android what apps are installed and displays their icons and when you press it, it asks android to launch the app, but yhere is a folder in data where there are system app apks but I haven’t checked for non system apps. Edit: The files app also doesn’t hide .apk extensions