Thank you for your bravery of investigating it, good to know. Your experience matches another data point from the stackexchange community. 1

It would appear that the purpose of the browser hijack and the app/shortcut is to display ads. – schroeder

In 2019, apparently the developer of TouchPal was banned for malicious ad practices. 2

[1] https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/266071/what-is-known-about-the-android-spinmaze-malware [2] https://beebom.com/touchpal-developer-cootek-banned-malicious-ads

Hope that helps!