It is just the most recent (I wanted to write last, but I'm sure it is not the last) of many similar stories and articles, which can be summed up as "Do not be a sharecropper." Some previous ones:
True, but didn't it used to be that sharecropping mainly meant building plugins to existing applications (i.e. adding a plugin to Microsoft Word). Suddenly sharecropping is broadened to writing an application on someone else's Operating System! This is extremely scary that we now consider that sharecropping as well.
> Suddenly sharecropping is broadened to writing an application on someone else's Operating System!
Yes, because operating systems have been written that make you a true sharecropper - not only you do need permission from the liege to distribute your app, but the permission can be revoked at any time, whenever your lord feels like it.
This was not the case with the proprietary systems of the past. Even Microsoft, being criticized as the evilest of evil did not try to stop you from distributing your Windows apps.