I'm not sure that Apple's environment is hostile towards sustainability of small software businesses like the author claims. Sure, prices are low, but the market is huge and it's extremely easy to sell large numbers if the app is worth anything.

To put it differently: how well would a small software business that is struggling under these conditions have fared 25-30 years ago when you had to advertise in print magazines and carry the disks to the post office for every customer (and every update!)? The fact that there is more competition now, isn't exactly Apple's fault either.