I'm one of the developers behind this app, and I'm really happy that it's getting some attention for this. One of the biggest problems with passbook is that it's hard for people to "get" the concept until they see it in action. The Valpak app provides a very low "barrier" to getting a pass. You don't have to have an account or sign in, and there's tons to choose from with just a few taps. It's easy to see what Passbook does and why it's beneficial with this app, and I'm very proud of it!
TestFlight was a great service for a long time. We ended having to roll our own distribution system recently though, as their servers have been very unreliable. Clients don't like to hear "you'll have your beta once TestFlight's server start working again"
It's actually kind of interesting you bring this up! I used to use Digg like crazy back in the day, and then about 2 or 3 months before Digg 4 (it was 4, not 3, right?) I jumped ship to reddit. Reddit seemed to have much better content, much better conversations, and was more relevant to my technical interests. Digg had started that way, but soon became hype stories / drama / memes / cat pictures. After having used reddit for about 1.5 years, I discovered hacker news. After reading hn for a bit, it started to become obvious that reddit was starting to feel like Digg did before I left. Nothing but memes / complaining / cat pictures / look at what my (girlfriend / kid / cat did) / lol science is cool kind of stuff. I image that over time the same thing will happen here, and is probably happening right now. Enjoy it while it lasts I suppose!
Apple isn't forcing anyone to develop for iOS. People have a large sense of entitlement these days-- if you're not happy with it make android or windows mobile apps! The thing is, developing for iOS is generally more profitable, and more fun due to the controlled and tight environment. That's why we're seeing reports of the Amazon app store being more profitable then Google play. The rules, guidelines, and even the pulling of apps is all for a reason. It generates the experience Apple wants it's consumers to have (and they're willing to pay for), and if your app isn't part of that experience then to bad! It sucks when situations like this happen, but you shouldn't feel like Apple owes you anything.
It also depends on what you're programming. I do iOS apps, which is basically just displaying pictures and grabbing data from the Internet-- no fancy math needed. Though I've been dabbling in OpenGL ES 2.0 recently and the shaders are kicking my ass with math!