I'll admit that the right-click workaround is a minor speedbump but it does work.
And Developer ID certificates are valid much longer than a year, I believe mine expires in 2019. They aren't revoked if you stop paying for program membership, and the expiration applies to the signing operation, apps you've signed in the past will continue to work after the certificate expires.
I can do that, but it's not reasonable to expect my users to do so. As it is, indie developers have to choose between paying rent to Apple and having most users unable to open their apps.
I mean, really, you're comparing paying rent with a $100/yr fee (which now allows you to sign apps across their platforms)? Really? I highly doubt most indie developers even have to make that choice. Finding the $100 a year is not the most impossible task in the world, even for a tiny indie developer.
Plus, more than a few apps have added instructions on their download pages to show users how to get around Gatekeeper. They can clearly take the Gatekeeper hit, so you probably can too.
I could afford $100 a month. Affordability is not the point. The point is that Apple will block your app from opening by default unless you pay them a recurring fee, and if not, you must incur additional support burden to teach users how to get around the problem.
Yes, lots of apps do post instructions on how to get around it, but lots of apps do all sorts of user-unfriendly things. We Apple users used to make fun of Windows for the endless sea of pointless dialogs its users had to go through. Those apps could take the shitty-UI hit, mine probably could too, but it still sucks. A lot of people are intimidated just looking at instructions like that, and will just give up.
I don't know about you, but I feel like that's a pretty terrible first-run experience for my app. I don't feel comfortable charging people for something they might not even be able to run. Would Apple be willing to put their own apps behind that kind of painwall?
Personally, that is a total game changer for me. I have an app idea, to build a custom house management app for my wife and I. I really don't care to put it on the app store and I don't want to pay $99 for a two person app. Now I can make an app that only my wife and I will use.
This is the first time you could install apps on your device without paying for a membership. Previously you could design and test through a simulator for free, now he can build and actually use his app without paying extra as he isn't distributing.
I think you two are talking about different things. You could always distribute to OSX devices. However, now is the first time ever when you can run your app on an iOS device without a membership certificate from Apple. This is very good news.
It never was the case that you had to go through the app store to deploy an app for personal use. The only requirement was to have a paid iOS developer membership.