Why do they charge this fee at all if they're taking 30% of purchases?
Oh wait I'm sorry that would be good design. Apple doesn't do that.
I feel most people aren't so upset about the idea or reasons behind a yearly fee so much as the yearly fee being so high.
The opportunity cost of having developers NOT sign up because of the fee seems negligible. People still come flocking to Apple because they think they need to build an iOS app (and because of Apple's lackluster adoption of progressive web app support, that's still the only good way to get iOS users on board).
EDIT: Also, as others have mentioned, having a lower or zero fee would lower the bar, potentially flooding the App Store with even more low quality apps.
Oh wait that was dumb, the 30% tax means the breakeven point is $141.43.
Also it seems possible now that the GP was speaking from Apple's perspective, not the developer's.
Oh wait, you're the GP. Sorry, I was confused about the point of the discussion.
For Apple to make $99 of your sales (not accounting for taxes etc), you'd need to generate a volume of sales of which 30% would amount to $99, i.e. $99 / 0.3 = $330.
If you're asking "how much does a developer need to make in sales every year to recoup their membership fee" that's different: $99 / 0.7 ≈ $142 (rounded up). But that's kinda orthogonal to Apple's interests.
It's what a developer would need to create in sales for Apple to make 99 bucks from their 30% cut.
$99 your cut used to cover the program fee
$42.42 Apple’s cut
The ratio of the two is almost exactly 70:30
It's also an easy way to fight spam by reducing to serious accounts and allowing manual review.
Have the fee when people submit an app for review, not before.
Best of both worlds. Lots of developers, rich ecosystem, high hurdle for spam.
Paternalism: the policy or practice on the part of people in positions of authority of restricting the freedom and responsibilities of those subordinate to them in the subordinates' supposed best interest.