Your rash judgement of other users is against the HN guidelines. You have no idea what the folks asking financial position is. I was HN user way back in the day when I was dirt poor.
Auther says "would like" not "need". You guys are looking to fight a problem that doesn't exist.
the author correctly intuits that a bunch of free users that may spread the word are worth more than N*0.95$ so the outrage on display here is not only unnecessary but counterproductive too
This is a huge and diverse community. Yeah the successful founders with exit can easily afford the $1. The highly paid SWEs and other engineers can afford it. Some people can't. I've been in that boat, and may be at some point again in the future, but I'll still be on HN.
I don't mind $1. I do mind paying to test someone else's app, that's quite the growth hack.
I agree. I don't want people to pay to test though, since the app is already on the App Store and ready to be sold. If someone still wants the promo code though I am happy to provide it here :)