$70 for a wildcard cert!? Where are you looking at? There's a shitload of AlphaSSL resellers that are much cheaper. I got 2 wildcard certs for $20/yr. Of course, there's really no need for a wildcard certificate, and StartCom gives out free, valid non-wildcard certs right now. On top of that, Lets Encrypt should simplify the process greatly.
Right, and for anything that is commercial, a <$10/yr SSL certificate shouldn't be a huge deal. It's not perfect, it should all be free, but saying cost is a barrier is BS, in my opinion.
< $10/year is generally if you go with a 3rd party seller. Trying to install that, as a non-technical person, is usually very hard.
The 1-click installations that are provided by the hosts are usually more than that.
Yes, even $50/year for a business in not that big a deal but so much of the market has international users where $50 is really expensive. There are also small time hobby/businesses where $50 makes an impact.
