I really don't want to be That Hacker News Comment, but isn't the story here essentially "made an app, tried to sell it, didn't get the success I wanted, gave u

I really don't want to be That Hacker News Comment, but isn't the story here essentially "made an app, tried to sell it, didn't get the success I wanted, gave up"? Or is there some major benefit to the reviews and download figures for the free version I'm not seeing? (Although this does tell us one very interesting thing - that a topical app on the App Store, with minimal marketing, can get huge downloads if it shifts from paid to free.) The part of this story that really impresses me is actually the $440 revenue. That's not at all bad for an MVP, and demonstrates there's a market and that the app sells. Those are the kind of indicators I'd look for before pumping a lot more time into the app and attempting to turn it into a real business. There's every chance - particularly given the subsequent good reviews - that this app could have been an $xxxx/mo success. Any chance OP can push an update and upsell his happy customers to a paid version, I wonder?