As an open source developer, you're right IMO.

It's a shame you're being downvoted based on feels.

Ah fantastic, can you give me $100? It's basically nothing, a symbolic amount.

Signed, a disabled and unable to work guy who enjoys IT and programing

Good for you you have so much disposable income. Many hobby devs such as myself aren't so lucky, which is one reason why I don't make Apple apps.

Naw.

When I was a student or freshly qualified, $100/year would've been a lot.

But it's more than just the money.

I've coded hobby / small android apps. I was charged a one off fee of $25, and I can use my nice gaming PC with my lovely high end mouse and keyboard, and over the years I've used Windows and Linux to write the apps, both from a shared hdd.

My apps aren't useful to the general public, but I've got a couple of decades experience in my field, and those apps are genuinely helpful to the people that use them.

For apple, the last time I looked into it, I'd have needed a specific type of apple computer (one with an intel chip, couldn't compile on the cheaper non-intel chips).

That automatically makes it a pain in the ass, I couldn't just use my normal PC for coding. I'd need to transfer assets to a network share or use a convoluted way of keeping the same assets updated on two computers, and look into ways I could use the same mouse/keyboard on both machines. Would using a splitter or KVM cause problems? Input lag when gaming? Would it need a power brick? Just finding the desk space for another PC case would mess up my speaker layout.

It just adds unnecessary complexity, and to slap a $100 yearly fee on top is just insulting.

Absolutely not worth my time for apps that would never make $100/year in sales (which after apples 30% cut, would need to be $142/year. Plus extra for taxes and occasional iMac upgrades).

Maybe things have changed since then, but every time I use a small, niche app or find a wonderful free app, I wonder if it'll exist on apple.