Yeah, it shouldn't really be too surprising that software distribution, and indeed retail generally, have changed radically in the forty years since Walter's anecdote but here we are.

Good luck finding a reseller for your product that does not do it.

> This is obviously, hilariously untrue when Amazon produces hundreds of billions of dollars of profit every year

It's an irrelevant figure to your claim. The relevant statistic would be the markup, not the aggregate profit.