Right, a seamless deploy to a 'production' site would be worth an added fee to a lot of people. From the blog post, it seems like they spent a lot of mental effort around the development direction and sidestepping a possible added revenue stream. The hosting doesn't have to be part of the core product - a 'publish site' button to a hosted solution would be great for the users who want it (and not horribly complex).
Even if they don't want to host it themselves, they could partner with a host and coordinate the single button click push to production for their customers.
[+] [-] wccrawford|15 years ago|reply
The correct answer for that client was "If you want to host that site with us, the URL will be X and it will cost you Y per month."
Chances are they just wanted free hosting, but if they didn't, you've got more income and an additional revenue model. Without much work.
[+] [-] BenSS|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lessthanideal|15 years ago|reply