This is a taste of Apple's own medicine from when it brought suit against weaker device manufacturers instead of Google directly for Android related patent infringement.
I agree. However, the choice not to protect the developers creates problems for Apple which may be as bad as those created by protecting them. And the dilemma of a PR disaster and the precedent of establishing a B2B relationship with developers is what makes the situation so interesting.
This analogy seems pretty thin since Android's ecosystem is equally at risk here. This isn't going to scare these devs to another platform, it's going to scare them into not using the API.
Wouldn't surprise me if Google were behind it.
Apple may have lots of money, but something tells me these particular patent trolls could get the money they need if it came down to it.
Quite a lot.