I think it also important to note that it wasn't just the pricing itself, which was indeed already heinous, but that the rate calculation changed. It used to be a rate per user per app (apikey+oauth) but they changed that to just the per app ... that then has a multiplicative effect on the costs and makes the "free tier" they were talking about especially pointless....

It would be easy for an app to start at free tier ... not have much growth through word of mouth but enough given the per app rates to push it over boundary points ... and then be due a significant and unavoidable invoice in a couple of months...