isn't that a sign that competition in a more open platform makes for a better market for the consumer? And that paying for software is a thing of the past, and that other revenue models needs to be thought up.
Games have already made the transition, mainly due to the way they raced to the bottom and high cost of production, but i suspect utility apps will follow suit very soon.
It was not the sole reason I moved away from android but it definitely helped me make the decision.
Then there's the demo stuff where you pay to unlock extended features. Sometimes I don't necessarily need those (like on the Hue Pro app or Nova Launcher) but when I use something daily and it's $1.99 to get the full version, I tend to buy "pro" more often than not. It's more a matter of maybe wanting the extra functionality or wanting to support the dev than about necessity in most cases but it definitely beats having to buy something only to find out it's crap.
If anything, the only reason I skip an app entirely is because I can't find enough trusted info to convince me it's something I want and there's no free version to test out first. Only for trusted devs and well-known and thoroughly reviewed apps do I tend to buy without a trial/demo first.
This is key. I don't mind paying for apps, but if I can find a free (beer/libre) one (such as on F-DROID), I'll go for that first.
I rarely bought anything from the Google Play Store but I'm pretty sure this is due to the fact that on Android there is almost ALWAYS a free alternative for whatever you need.
On iOS not so much, even the crappiest app will cost you something.
But on the other hand I would do the same. iOS users are willing to spend more money on mobile apps/services which is also the reason why they buy expensive high end phones in the first place instead of buying a 50$ Android phone.