.... so what should they do? If they subsidize prices and help out the people who would never go to a local repair shop and only know the great white Apple logo

.... so what should they do? If they subsidize prices and help out the people who would never go to a local repair shop and only know the great white Apple logo in the sky, they're jerks for driving mom/pop shops out of business. If they don't do it then they're non-responsive. Them stepping up and going to $29 plus software updates is the way to go. It just took too long, like everything else Apple does post-Jobs.