A $100 fee makes it costly to burn and churn new accounts. So it's a spam filter.
Forcing developers to stay engages pushes out feature complete software but also pushes out unmaintained software.
An app store is an inherently higher cost distribution method. The operating systems are gratis so development is cross subsidized from app store royalties. They have an incentive to host more paid apps, especially micro-transaction apps that trick kids into spending thousands of dollars off mom's credit card. Of course they've banned or are going to ban alternative channels so you can't choose to self-distribute.
Forcing developers to stay engages pushes out feature complete software but also pushes out unmaintained software.
An app store is an inherently higher cost distribution method. The operating systems are gratis so development is cross subsidized from app store royalties. They have an incentive to host more paid apps, especially micro-transaction apps that trick kids into spending thousands of dollars off mom's credit card. Of course they've banned or are going to ban alternative channels so you can't choose to self-distribute.