Unfortunately, smaller independent films and authors probably do hope you stumble upon their works -- it's notoriously difficult to sell books unless you are picked up by a major publisher.

I think his point is that things like the App store should be more of a meritocracy (like the web), but it's becoming increasingly difficult for smaller players to get noticed to due the economics (strong downward pricing pressure) and Apple's policies (random rejection can destroy months of work). One thing they don't mention is how difficult it is to figure out where your sales are coming from; there's no Google analytics or referrer logs for app sales -- you have to do things like become your own affiliate through LinkShare and assign different codes to your own links if you have multiple distribution channels.

A list of all the things one can do to raise the profile and track the marketing of a single developer app would be a useful resource. Hell, if you put together a decent sized ebook, it would probably be a reasonable successful product. If you could reach the right audience.

You're right that the App Store distribution channel does not limit a developer's marketing ability. It does, however, limit the pricing. The App Store is structured to directly reward high sales with exposure, creating a feedback loop that drives prices down. As an indie developer, I can support a modest marketing budget that creates modest sales if I can charge $29 for my app, but I can't do it at 99 cents.

Not all distribution channels are created equal, and this particular one is so biased toward high volume/low price that an indie can't get any traction.