Apple's approval process might not be /that bad/ if you are lucky or if you are writing a fairly average app that doesn't do much or doesn't do anything Apple cares about at least, But it sure is stinky if you're among the 0.10% that Apple has beef with for some reason or another. Then you're looking at lots of wasted time, effort and of course money.
And of course you can't know for sure if you'll be in that minority until after you have already spent the resources to develop the app in the first place.