You really wrote that in ultrarant mode I fear. My experience is completely different. In my opinion, everybody who made a medium contribution to the community got in the dev program (just see me with the N810 and the N900).
In addition, you can use the scratchbox environment to develop whatever app you like, then test it remotely on a real device using the service from Forum Nokia.
If you're truly interested in the success and possibilities of the platform, you will understand why the N900 breaks so much - at least in terms of UI. Maemo 5 is for fingers, and this needs fitting UI concepts.
And in the end: the device program offers a discount of how much? 200 EUR perhaps? This completely pales in relation to the hours of work needed for any developer to contribute just a small app. The discount is absolutely insignificant, it's just a nice gesture from Nokia towards the constructive part of the community.

Really, these rants are absolutely unnecessary.