> The price range is wide but a certificate only valid for a year will typically go for about $100.
This is hypocrisy, smells like Apple-fanboy trolling. MS stimulates competition on the code signing certificates and it is free to deploy through their appstore. And you can bypass Smartscreen right from the warning.
Certificates cost $59.00 at codesigncert[0], not "about $100.00". Established developers with reputation don't need certificates.
Now compare that with Apple's (much more walled) approach: only Apple sells the certificate at the price of $99,00, even to deploy on their Mac store (where they'll also take a cut) and it is not trivial to bypass their screen.
[0] https://codesigncert.com/comodo-individual-code-signing
Edit: I don't like MS codesigning implementation, but they are not the worst on this game.