And yet, apple has taken concrete steps to try to encourage more high quality (i.e. pricier) apps, including adding the "top grossing category" to the app store

And yet, apple has taken concrete steps to try to encourage more high quality (i.e. pricier) apps, including adding the "top grossing category" to the app store. The post also fails to give any examples whatsoever of how apple is actively encouraging the cheap/free apps. One might argue that they kind of discourage it by charging the $99 fee to join the program that lets you post apps. Apple makes it so that it costs you money to give away your programs.