You are missing the point. Developers wants their cake and eat it. they want both a cheap way of distributing their apps with low level of piracy and complete freedom to publish whatever they want whenever they want. This is just not compatible.
The truth is that the App Store is a success for the developers and the users because of the abundance of relatively inexpensive applications, typically they are less than half their price on PCs. The main reason is that piracy is very low, but that also mean that someone has to administer the system. Yes the approval process can be improved but it will not disappear as Apple has to take responsibility for the distribution and integrity of the platform. That may be a break for rapid turn around but it is the condition for a functioning market. If you like a comparison the stock exchange can only operate successfully because of the SEC. It may be that in the long term there will be a separation of the approval / regulation process and the retail operation but we are not there yet.