This is a freight train and it doesn't seem to be stopping anytime soon...

This is a really interesting model. Can't wait to see how it works out.

Also curious to see how it works out, but this model isn't novel. Shopify has done similar things in the past for its ecosystem. I ended up getting funded to build a Shopify app, and they were pretty easy to work with. As far as I can tell, this offering is no longer available.

You mean

https://apps.shopify.com/ ?

I think GP meant that Shopify themselves actually funded their app, not just that they built it on top of Shopify.

Correct, at some point in time Shopify was paying app developers to build apps to put in their App store.