How is this different from writing an app for say the web? Or Linux?
What if your only audience is yourself. Or a very small group of people? Which is also perfectly possible for iPad/iPhone developers?
How does he define success? Financially? Making it available? Being able to open source it?
This is the exact opposite of a web app, or a linux app, or even a desktop OSX app. You write it, you distribute it, and it's on you to make it successful.
We won't see groundswell against this kind of thing, unless we help to create it by educating potential customers.
My point is that plenty of developers and consumers seem to rather like the App Store model. And I can see how that won't change, at least for developers. Yes, you pay $100 a year, and yes, Apple ultimately decides if your app is worthy, but for a lot of devs, this is actually a win, as they don't have to market their software.
That is absurd. There are 150,000+ apps on the App Store. Those have all passed Apple's review process, by definition. And yet only a very small percentage of those approved apps are popular/profitable. Building an app that people love is much harder, and much more important to your success, than simply passing the App Store review. If you stay within the fairly well-known guidelines, passing the App Store review is a very low bar to clear.