There have been measurable improvements over years to things like app review times etc, significantly so in some cases.
Whether _any_ review process in a store the size of Apple's can justify taking 30% is not obvious to me. As size goes up, costs usually go down in a healthy market. The App Store is barely recognizable in scale vs launch day, but financial terms for developers have barely moved.
I have spent a bit of time thinking about this, and can't really come up with a way of calculating a 'justifiable cut' for Apple.
Would it be their cost per average app? Should it be a fixed fee with a variable rate on top? Should they license access like the videogame companies used to? Won't these smaller profits further incentivize Apple to offer competing apps in every category, and dis-incentivize quality control of third party apps?
My conclusion (so far) is that it's best to let each platform developer choose their business model, and see which one works best. Business models can compete along with hardware and software.
Whether _any_ review process in a store the size of Apple's can justify taking 30% is not obvious to me. As size goes up, costs usually go down in a healthy market. The App Store is barely recognizable in scale vs launch day, but financial terms for developers have barely moved.