Users should understand and I would gladly pay for Apollo per month.
This also entails getting rid of the free tier and imposing usage limits on the remaining subscribers since a few people could easily blow out the average and drive up costs.
There are definitely people willing to pay those costs (I count myself as one of them, as well), but the lack of apps like Apollo being successful at that price point probably means that it is not a sustainable business.
A “lifetime” purchase for any app is always a bad idea and is a Ponzi scheme. Mobile apps always require maintenance and updates.
Now of course I understand that he could have never predicted such a price increase.