Some of their decisions make a lot of sense, eg the requirement for potential stores to have a $1m letter of credit which massively deters anyone looking to create a one-stop-malware-shop.

But others like the 50c/user 'core tech fee' (even for completely free apps) is just mean. Unity tried the same thing last year and it didn't end well for them.

What it represents is admittance and paranoia on the part of Apple. If they had utter confidence in their product that developers wouldn't just leave they they wouldn't have put up so many hurdles. What are they so scared of?

For the record I still think Apple's 15/30% commission is fair. In exchange for that service fee developers are getting infinite hosting, payment processing, bug finding, API security, tax processing and marketing. Maybe it is a 'tax' but then again taxes are what make society function in the first place.