Would you rather the money you pay for an application go towards further development of the application or to maintaining a store?
Most of the money
does go to the developer. Apple keeps 15% or 30%... which gives the developer
85% or
70% of the sticker price.
And if a developer can't pay their mortgage because Apple is stealing 30%... it doesn't automatically mean they would be able to pay their mortgage if there wasn't a commission fee. There are always fees and costs of doing business.
Remember... ALL stores take a cut. You have to be aware of that before you decide to sell anything anywhere.
Let's see Wrangler try to sell jeans in Walmart
without Walmart getting some sort of a cut. And isn't retail wholesale/retail markup around 50%? That would mean Wrangler only gets $10 on a $20 pair of jeans if this is true. Yikes!
Hell... Google takes 45% of the ad revenue on Youtube. And Google doesn't even help you make your videos!
At least Apple gives you the tools to build your apps.