Not that I disagree with you in general, but there are a lot of entrepreneurs for whom $50/year is a major impediment.
When App Engine had its major round of price increases a year or two ago, a number of small developers in Africa and India complained on the mailing list. Apparently the nearly-free service of GAE was supporting a number of entrepreneurs who live a very different life from the typical bay area startup groupie.
I lived in Peru for 5 years, everyone who has the skills to write GAE or rails apps there all have very well paid outsourced jobs working for companies from the US or Spain. $50 is absolutely no problems for them, it's not a problem either for the local growing middle class in Peru or even India and Africa. Most people who had enough education to be able to write GAE apps are from the middle class or already have well paid jobs.
Also, for some developing countries is not only the money, but how do they pay.
I mean, here in Bolivia $5 a month is equal to two lunches, not too much money, but. If are not getting a good salary (developers usually are not) you can't acces to credit cards. And that is a problem. Pre-paid cards may be an option but that increases the cost even more.
When App Engine had its major round of price increases a year or two ago, a number of small developers in Africa and India complained on the mailing list. Apparently the nearly-free service of GAE was supporting a number of entrepreneurs who live a very different life from the typical bay area startup groupie.