As was pointed out by someone else, Steve Jobs allowed for charging folks for phone support. Which was not so long ago the same ilk as chat support, i.e. folks screaming it should be free.
Many places like MS, Best Buy etc charge you at least $10-20 just to run a simple diagnostic test on your stuff. Often prepaid, non refundable and not credited to any repairs. Apple in their stores charges you nothing. And despite saying those appointments are 10-15 minutes long they don't time you and toss you when your time is up. You could be there asking questions or whatever for hours. Sure they might 'multitask' here and there but they won't kick you out or charge you for going over your time.
If anything perhaps this fee is to get folks to stop calling or starting chats for mundane crap they should be able to figure out themselves, google for or is actually a question for someone else like their ISP. If the issue is my Earthlink email isn't coming in cause I forgot my password I shouldn't be calling Apple anyway, and yet folks do it all the time (same with going in the stores) cause 'i use it on my iPad' suddenly makes it an Apple issue