I mean it’s not beside the point if the reason for not publishing on the App Store was money.
I had no idea about Altstore going in, but looking into it it’s all done over Patreon, and I can’t find reference to any fees you mention. The most expensive Patreon tier for them is $8.50 per month, or $102 per year, however $3 (at an early bird rate) or $36 per year is enough to allow you to use 3rd party hosts for your app.
Also worth noting, distribution on third party App Store does not exempt developers from the developer program fee — Developers must sign a separate agreement to opt into the new business terms.
So, not only they are still responsible for the $99/yr fee, they’d need to sign a new agreement to opt into the new business terms, which has a separate additional fee schedule attached.
I mean it’s not beside the point if the reason for not publishing on the App Store was money.
I had no idea about Altstore going in, but looking into it it’s all done over Patreon, and I can’t find reference to any fees you mention. The most expensive Patreon tier for them is $8.50 per month, or $102 per year, however $3 (at an early bird rate) or $36 per year is enough to allow you to use 3rd party hosts for your app.
https://developer.apple.com/support/core-technology-fee
Also worth noting, distribution on third party App Store does not exempt developers from the developer program fee — Developers must sign a separate agreement to opt into the new business terms.
So, not only they are still responsible for the $99/yr fee, they’d need to sign a new agreement to opt into the new business terms, which has a separate additional fee schedule attached.