Actually, it's more like you buy all the cheap mineral rights to land in North Dakota, and then develop fracking to extract oil and natural gas. Just because everyone else failed in North Dakota doesn't mean that you're now required to grant all the other energy companies access.

No one holds a gun to your head to buy an iPhone/iPod/iPad. There are alternatives to these devices, some with more freedom, some with less.

> detrimental to society as a whole

I wish just as much as the next computer geek to be able to side-load any app into my iOS devices, but millions of zombie machines and a slew of critical private information harvesters are way more detrimental (and even more in your phone which may become your credit card and whatnot). I honestly sleep much better now that I know my relatives won't download, install and execute some random app, since they conveniently have all they could wish for right in the App Store, reviewed and signed. It's not an invincible fortress, but it's way safer and more secure for them than a full-open (or even half-open) situation.

That 30% is standard business practice for middlemen. Any time you see someone complaining about the 30% cut, you can be sure that they don't have business experience. In some businesses the middleman gets a bit lower, in others a bit higher, but 30% is boringly normal.

Do you think the farmers make more than 70% of the retail price you pay for food in a supermarket? At an eatery? Do you think that book authors (before or after the internet) get more than 70% of the retail price of each book?

In selling things, the creation of the thing is important, yes. But so is getting it to customers and changing over the money (distribution and retail channel).