I'm interested to see what he comes up with. Given their main job, playing podcasts, most existing apps seem good enough. I use Downcast, and generally like it. There are some things I would prefer worked differently, but 10 people might have 10 different sets of minor annoyances, so I wonder if Overcast will be better for me.
The thing is, I'll probably buy it just to see anyway, and so will many others. For Marco, a customer that buys his app to try it out gives him the same (or more) profit as someone who uses it regularly. As long as it's good enough to suit some people best, he'll have a steady stream of people buying it to see if it suits them best.