Hi.
$PATH doesn’t contain ~/Applications by default so, imo, ~/.local/bin it’s a better place (it’s included in $PATH by default).
Due to it’s own nature you could create “an installer” for the users, a simple script that downloads the appimage, chmod to exec and adds a desktop, or at least a “preliminary desktop” (just in case the appimage generates its own desktop after first execution). wget(or curl)+zenity and 5 lines of code (including comments xD)
BTW, you could encourage your users to use appimaged that will take care of all of this questions.
Are there any other binary distribution platforms that might be interesting? What is best suited for integration with AppImageUpdate? Does it matter for AppImageHub where the Binary is hosted?
Github, gitlab… I don’t think that the host will be relevant for appimagehub nor appimageupdater. In my experiencie github (also gitlab) works pretty well, it’s reasonably fast and it’s solid-rock. And having both releases and source the project management it’s easier.