But here's my take on things:
Hackulous going away? Well, it is what it is. If the operators got bored with it, or too many people just used the Installous app all the time without ever visiting the forums to discuss it, or whatever the situation? Ok - fine. They certainly don't owe it to anyone to keep it running.
But I actually did use Installous for a brief period of time on my first iPad. I'd counter that just as the article asserts there is "no shortage of people interested in cheating developers out of their fees"? There's never been a shortage of commercial iOS apps that are overpriced, and/or too difficult to fully evaluate before buying, and/or designed to cheat USERS out of their money with ridiculous in-app purchase demands or requirements of re-buying newer releases of the same software.
As I've *always* maintained when it comes to entertainment purchases of intangibles like music, movies, video games, etc. -- each individual only has a certain portion of their budget or income they can realistically devote to such things. If they opt to buy a few new books, or a magazine subscription one month, that means they may not have any more disposable income for an iOS app that time around. And if they buy a few iOS games the next month, then they may not have the money for a new Playstation 3 title they want to check out, or ??
Given that's the reality of the marketplace, developers should just get over concerns about "piracy", period. When you release something, you're immediately competing with ALL other forms of intellectual property sold as entertainment out there. A certain percentage will pay you and the rest will vote with their wallets for something else. That's the nature of the whole business. Whether or not someone downloads some of your material who didn't pay is irrelevant in the big picture. You wouldn't see a penny more of revenue if you could deny them the ability to do that! They spent what they were willing to spend on entertainment elsewhere already, and apparently YOUR product wasn't so outstandingly good it made them pay you instead to get it as quickly and easily as possible.
In fact, what we know happens is the reverse! The harder a developer tries to prevent some software from getting used without paying, the more inconvenient they make the software for a paying customer. (Think of DRM on iTunes music and how much that sucked compared to an unprotected MP3 that you could just play anywhere.)