Platforms are weird. I'm a Godot user, but have made a game on Unity and have downloaded the Unreal environment. There are circumstances where I have to give all those entities a cut of whatever I do (except Godot is MIT-licensed open source, so I'm not restricted by them very much at all).
It's a bit like paying for access to Apple's Gatekeeper system? Without their involvement, I can't circumvent their code signing systems, so in some ways it seems to me like it's a given that if I code for their platform, I'm expected to pay for access to their security system that checks my submissions for malware. I could code stuff purely on the Unix layer to run in Terminal or something like that, but then I would clearly be an outsider with no association with Apple's 'walled garden'. The cost of entry to being considered inside the 'walled garden' and safe to use, is not just willingness to have my code audited and code-signed if it's safe to run, it's also paying for engagement with those systems.
I feel like if Apple both did that and prohibited use of any other dev software, it would flip something for me and I would be adamantly against their practice. Since it's for access to a class of developer that's meant to be treated as privileged and Apple-approved, it doesn't bug me to pay $100 a year. I would be distressed if I had to cough up $1000, and if it was $10,000 a year I might not be able to continue the practice.
don't you also have to pay if you want to load your app on your device? (aka side-load) So yeah you could dev with the emulator for free, but even if the app is by you and only for you, you have to pay
