Ask HN: Favorite Non-Spammy iPhone Games?

I recall I enjoyed Hoplite, Data Wing, Mini Metro, Super Mario Run, and a few others.

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You probably already know Apple arcade curates a set of games. Many of the 'plus' versions of games have the ad/loot box features stripped or set to "free."

The metal slug games are also on the app store. It's a bit hard to play but you can set infinite lives and it's a fun way to kill some time while waiting around somewhere.

I finally had to settle on the least scummy one and still have to turn my phone to airplane mode to not have to sit through a 2 minute ad every time I want to play a hand.

Genuine question, why do all mobile app developers do this?

Is there some kind of cost that hosting the app on the app store or running / maintaining it brings with it where they are basically forced to blast ads at every single possible moment? Are the developers just trying to make the free version as annoying as possible so that people end up paying out of spite? Are they hoping that someone with a gambling addiction downloads the app and is willing to spend large sums of money on upgrades and in game currency? What is it?

What is stopping someone from making something like a basic solitaire game without ads or power ups or streaks of any kind, hosting it, and then calling it a day? I feel like this would be such a breath of fresh air people would seek the author out to try to pay them for the experience funnily enough.