A fair point. Off the top of my head...
Twitter could have asked developers to show their ads, or charged us for API use, or asked for community funding, or given incentives to people who could afford to pay, or sold analytics, or any of a hundred different way to keep developers and users happy.
They want to be the global pulse, yet they're stomping on people who can get them further reach. All so they can sell a rich audience to advertisers.