[aleph_minus_one]

> But the another thing (which is fascinating to me, given the audience of HN and the tone of the comments here) is that part of the purpose of the ecosystem lock-in is to get users to pay indy devs for software.

The group of indie devs is not a homogeneous group. For example, there exist "hacker-type" indie devs who love to write software that subverts Apple's rules and/or adds functionalities that Apple does not like or restricts.

[labcomputer]

Yes, and they are quite vocal and not afraid to shout down the other type nor to use the downvote button. Unfortunately I'm afraid their shenanigans will undermine the market and ecosystem of those who would like to make a living from writing quality software.

C'est la vie.

Part of the problem (I believe) is people who want to have their cake and eat it too. If that worked in real life, the government could simply pass a law that cake shall cost $0 and no-one would go hungry ever again. Apple's ecosystem imposes restrictions on developers, but also brings benefits. Sometimes in real life you have to take the bad with the good.