They are not in the business of selling you apps - they want you to buy the hardware that runs that apps.
Then why do they charge you $99 per year for the privilege of making your own apps?
Your question has nothing to do with my statement. It is like me saying the Sun is yellow and you respond with, why are trees green then? What does charging developers have to do with it? To answer your question naively, it is likely to create some semblance of quality by making sure a developer is serious about making an app and to provide an initial quality check. It probably also helps subsidize the whole app review process. Or maybe I am completely wrong... I actually know nothing about Apple app development.
If you read the article you linked, the deal was with HP Enterprise Systems. Today's news is about splitting or selling HP Personal Systems Group.
Yes, I understand that. I guess you missed the point that they were using this contract to force NASA to buy HP hardware... sorry not buy but lease since NASA no longer is in the business of owning desktop hardware.
IF I HAD A MINE SHAFT, I don't think I would just abandon it. There's got to be a better way. -- Jack Handley, The New Mexican, 1988.