Re: Let me see...
Xcode is available to any one at no charge.
The $99 (and it was reduced from $99 per platform this year) means you may submit your applications to the App Store. Other changes this year: one will be able to put one's own iOS apps onto one's own mobile devices. I'll say about time for that, but still, this "Outrageous!" is a bit overplayed.
Now, people who need Xcode downloaded in hours instead of days so as to build their commercial projects and so turn to third parties, when EVERYONE KNOWS THAT SOFTWARE FROM THIRD PARTIES HAS A HIGH INSTANCE OF DODGINESS, get a pass from us because, Apple is rich?
I guess we could knock Apple for not publishing hashes, but, really, Apple figures a download from it via https is the only way one should get their software. I know, walled garden, controlling Apple, insisting that there be one source for their code.
(Incidentally, if Google is not looking at ways to check that developers are using legit compilers, SDKs, and IDEs, they aren't as smart as I think they are.)
I also add that I recall Ken Thompson gave a famous speech in which he said malware injected by the compiler would be a real ugly problem.
Any way, the Xcode-now crowd do not get a pass from me, because I did spend hours getting software from legitimate sites via 14K modem a couple of decades back. What was their rush? Getting their knockoff to the App Store two days before the competition got their knockoff posted?