Exactly, they've automated the issuance of free certs and revoking takes extra work. $25 sounds high (sub-$10/year certs with unlimited free revocation & re-issuance are easy to find) so it is a money maker for them but so what?

People think nothing of using the freemium model which gives you a basic product for free, and charges you for extra features. It's exactly what StartSSL are doing here.

I don't particularly like or use StartSSL, but much of the criticism of them sounds totally invalid to me. Paid DV certs are dirt cheap people, shop around!