I am not convinced the approval process is 'evil'. Capricious? yes. Opaque? You bet. But not evil. They have made some dumb decisions that are getting a good amount of press coverage in tech circles, but the general iPhone user doesn't care about most of that.

I also don't think the article's author made a good case for iPhone development being as bad as gambling. Writing software for any platform can look like a crap-shoot from the outside. But success depends on a good product and a market to be served. Many of the iPhone apps are neither so that makes it more difficult to determine what the chances of success are.

I think that iPhone development has a higher chance of success than for any other current platform. You have a audience that is willing to spend disposable income, and a place where they can easily find apps to serve their needs.