Software is not free once written. You need to expend resources to keep it up to date and secure.
If you aren't keeping things up to date, you are neglecting the maintenance of your application. You wouldn't be surprised if your car stopped working if you never change the oil. Apple is taking proactive actions here, presumably to protect the end user experience. Wether or not I agree with the manner of proactive action is a different issue. We know apple loves to exert tons of control over things like this.
Apple is difficult to work with. It takes maintenance to keep apps up to date. Yes, the two year thing seems a bit over the top but remember the real issue is that this guy can't submit a new build because he hasn't added support for the last two OS versions.
The app store is hard to work with, but they payoff is immense also.
Welcome to the real world.