Hmm, I dunno. This is my reflexive suspicion, as well, but I don't know that it actually tracks, logically.

Like, if a good app is actually so straightforward to build, you'd think somebody would have made it and, I dunno, put an up-front price on it. Like just make that the whole selling point - "The only way this app makes money is by getting you to pay for it up front, and we do that by working to earn a good reputation as being worth it."

There's no way nobody's thought of that, and if such a thing were made and even moderately successful, that could easily make plenty of money to please a lone dev or even a small team.

Hell, you'd think somebody, by now, would've made a good and free app just to have it on their resume.

And thinking that through, if that was actually feasible, there's no way Match can actually afford to buy every app that springs up and gets successful. It's crazy rare for something to only be doable by one person. If it can be done once, you'd expect to see a dozen copycat apps pop up in no time. It's kind of insane how many good, difficult to make apps (like graphics apps, games, etc.) exist that are completely free.

I dunno. I think there has to be more 'bit of both' going on than people give credit for. Building an actually 'good' app is probably harder than a lot of people think.