With payment processor fees as well as per-user support fees (e.g. if a user asks a question), going to $6/year doesn't seem sustainable even if you have the market size which could provide a huge user base. For many projects they also have to keep in mind that their user base is not endless, so when it begins to saturate they need to have a reasonable income.

Not that it's easy to make money in mobile but there are apps that sell for a low number of dollars and they don't even necessarily have in-app purchases. I think it's more akin to micropayments albeit on a different scale. Personally, I'm very resistant to subscriptions. I don't want to be managing 50 $0.50/month subscriptions for this that and the other thing. Just too much mental energy to deal with.

Is that an entirely fair comparison? Personally I don't have the same expectations for a product where I have an ongoing subscription vs a one time purchase (i.e. ignoring the scale of $ I'd expect differences in support/ongoing development/community platforms/etc). Perhaps that's a minority view however.

Maybe? Certainly, lots of people expect app upgrades that handle new phone models and OS upgrades. Subscriptions probably do have a more explicit ongoing support relationship though.

Well of course, who wouldn't rather pay fifty cents than ten dollars for something? The question is really rather how can the average business survive after its revenue stream falls by 95%? They don't have volunteers staffing the offices and writing the articles.

It attracts the wrong kind of people.