.... so what should they do? If they subsidize prices and help out the people who would never go to a local repair shop and only know the great white Apple logo in the sky, they're jerks for driving mom/pop shops out of business.

If they don't do it then they're non-responsive.

Them stepping up and going to $29 plus software updates is the way to go. It just took too long, like everything else Apple does post-Jobs.