I find the video game console world so strange. Having to pay just to develop feels wrong but that the price is under NDA feels ridiculous. IMO it shouldn't be legal.
Not necessarily. They charge $99/year to distribute your application, but for development you can run your application on your device for free[0]:
> You can launch your app on a device using a free Apple ID account, but the capabilities available to your app depends on the platform and your Apple Developer Program membership, described in Supported Capabilities.
You just won't have access to CloudKit, Game Center, Push Notifications, Wallet, In-App Purchases, etc.
Exactly. I don't like having to pay, obviously. But not being able to say the price is removing information from the market, not to avoid helping competitors, just to make it more inefficient and abuse a position of power.