There might genuinely not be a single price that pays for itself, and usage-based pricing might be required.
People are unintentionally grading him on a _huge_ curve, essentially "what if...all I had to do was code and App Store?" That would be nice, I get the impression he's had a fun ride so far where that was pretty much it. Now that the thing he's selling isn't free, he can pound the table and quit, or run the business.
Other than the needless personal attack, that's exactly what he did.