WordPress.org doesn't offer hosting, and once you install it on a $5/mo VPS you're way past $29/yr.
That's what they are competing against.
I also host my Ghost blog there for basically nothing
This is the classic HN Dropbox reaction.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8863
> you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially by getting an FTP account, mounting it locally with curlftpfs, and then using SVN or CVS on the mounted filesystem
(I was thinking about businesses, who usually have at least one server, somewhere.)