Interesting thoughts. Not sure what the developer could have done differently, here? The App is published on Apple's Platform, and it's impossible for him to distribute outside the store. He has been working on it for years, been a good citizen of the App Store, and created something people seem to genuinely love and value.

Honestly, this is one of the reasons I hope the legal system does eventually require Apple to enable opt-in, third party app stores. We need to have SOME release valve from being at the mercy of Apple's whims.