While that may be correct it's still insane you can't port open source software to a device you own without paying a fee.

You don’t have to pay a fee. Any account can sign and side load an app for free, and every 7 days you have to let it check in with apples servers. If you pay $100/year for a developer account, the apps can sit much longer without needing to check in.

Thank you for the correction, as little as it does to change things.