You can purchase directly on their website or via Setapp. So, I would count this as an argument.

I assure you that whatever money Apple would make from this wouldn’t make a dent in even some lower-level Apple pleb’s P&L.

This sort of unbound cynicism isn’t intelligent or useful. It shouldn’t be conflated with being usefully or interestingly critical.

It adds up when you need to pay $25 to get per-app volume control, $20 to fix to the menu bar, $10 to get window management, etc, per seat.

I don't think it's cynical to point out the perverse incentive. I think it's a useful point for discussion, especially given anyone familiar with any of the other major desktop environments (Windows, GNOME, KDE, etc.) might be surprised to learn that there's a modern desktop environment lacking these amenities.

The App Store fee is down to 15% these days*, or zero if you buy Bartender from their own website.

* For entities with < $1M annual revenue.