“It’s a tradeoff” and other uni-dimensional thinking

Don't forget that Apple is reaping 30% fees on all software sold on its platforms. It's not just a little bit of money btw, the fees taken off the app store are very nearly 100% profit and are currently running somewhere in the hundreds of millions of dollars per year range. Let the app store grow for a few more years and app store fees could easily account for 10% or more of Apple's profits.

And isn't the review process totally and completely necessary because it justifies this fee structure?

Tradeoff or not, capturing those rents is a major concern for Apple. It's not ending any time soon, and it's not a mistake on their part.

I was just thinking this.

The example that got me was "iPhones need to be locked down to prevent viruses". Linux, Mac OS X and Android don't have virus problems. Apparently Windows 7 is better in this regard too.