I believe this model necessitates a substantial up-front investment which indie developers may not be comfortable with. Also, unlike AdWords ads which are shown

I believe this model necessitates a substantial up-front investment which indie developers may not be comfortable with. Also, unlike AdWords ads which are shown side-by-side with 'free/organic' search results (which may still be 'bought' from an SEO company), those auctions would totally supplant the current discovery model. That's at least the impression I'm getting from the article.