You are just making stuff up here. As I said in the quote you responded to (and you accepted), Apple claims to run the App Store a bit over break even. That's a far cry from "the vast majority of that 30% cut off sub fees is pure profit."
Okay, then tell me what that 30% goes towards. Bandwidth cost for hosting the relatively minuscule app? We've already gone on about bandwidth. Apple could charge a buck for it and make that up and then some. Advertising cost? On their own service? That's more a bandwidth issue. Hosting a little picture on their store front doesn't cost them anything but. So...what?
I'll tell you what. It's attempt to make the app store even more profitable. Of that 30%, the vast majority would be pure pocket.
See, the reason why that 30% doesn't go anywhere is because none of the big subscription/store front services are using it. Amazon doesn't use it. Netflix doesn't use it. Microsoft obviously doesn't want to use it.
And again, you seem to be stuck on what Apple "should" make. They set a price. The developers decide if they want to pay it. Free market.
Free market on the whole, the iDevice ecosystem is anything but. I have no choice there. And yes, I could buy something else. But why should I? Hell, why should developers have to be forced into Apple's payment system?
I can understand making profit due to something. But making profit at the expense of something? Not so much. The latter is what this whole situation feels like to me. Apple is acting more as an obstruction than a gateway to a larger audience here.
Though as long as these sub services and stores are allowed to use the iPad without directly relying on Apple as a payment service, I have no complaints. It's slightly inconvenient having to hit up their webpage rather than accessing it from inside their app, but to me it's more fair for all involved. Apple has me paying them to use their platform, 3rd parties are making money off it without having to pay a hugely disproportionate amount to access the platform, and prices are kept relatively low.
But if Apple takes this away. Forces these companies to use them, things will be considerably different, and worse for everyone except Apple.
...at least in the short term. In the long term, it's bad for even Apple, considering it'll make their competition look more appealing to developers.
And, apparently, almost all of this money is funneled back into supporting and improving the App Store.
I support that, but Apple does have plenty of ways of making money without gouging 3rd parties directly.
This whole thing should be a choice, not a requirement.