It's funny that HN is normally so free-market that people here are happy to accept this sort of market feudalism: the company running the market for iOS apps gets to make their own rules, no matter how arbitrary.
It is a free market when you look at the bigger picture. You don't have to develop apps for iOS, you can develop them for other platforms and no one will stop you. iOS is part of the app market and as it's a free market Apple can control their portion however they like.
