"Hopefully you agree that a thriving ecosystem of independent developers is an important competitive advantage for Apple."
If Apple cared about a thriving ecosystem of independent developers, they would make it easy for developers on non-Apple hardware to build and test iOS apps. For the Windows/Linux-based developer who is just interested in kicking the tires on iOS development, the walled Apple ecosystem is very unfriendly to experimentation. I know I focused early on Android development for mobile apps because of the lower barrier to entry.
If Apple cared about a thriving ecosystem of independent developers, they would make it easy for developers on non-Apple hardware to build and test iOS apps. For the Windows/Linux-based developer who is just interested in kicking the tires on iOS development, the walled Apple ecosystem is very unfriendly to experimentation. I know I focused early on Android development for mobile apps because of the lower barrier to entry.