It really is a shame and it's a symptom of the whole 'race to the bottom' that goes on in the app store. In a way, I see why people put these practices in place. You can't charge over a certain amount (as you said) without bombing in sales. In reality some of these games need a lot of work to get the out the door. I'm aware of a few app store games that took months of a full studio's time to release. Yet still, people see it's over £0.69 and say 'Nah, that little game isn't worth it.'
It's because the app store is an extraordinarily poor discovery mechanism for games if they aren't free - people won't pay for something they can't tell if they will enjoy, and app stores simply don't provide enough information to answer that question.
