No, that's not really true. Their business model revolves around licensing the mono runtime to end users (in this case Developers) along with some extra platform specific code. In the case of iOS that is a statically linked exe build from AOT compilation of the CLR code. For Android that is a runtime that sits on the device and is shared for each exe, and for Mac that is taking the Mono Runtime and moving it in to the App package.

Yes, iOS was a lot of work. Yes, if they want to make it a commercial venture, that is their right, but Miguel has gone on record stating that no one else can do this due to the way the Mono runtime is licensed. They refused to give a static linking exception, as some other libraries do, so basically your only option is their solution or your own written from scratch. This is why the CoreCLR is cool.

Also - did you notice Mac is in there too? If you build a self contained package using Mono (embed the runtime in the App Bundle) they want you to pay for that now. Even though this has about zero to do with static linking.... I had a 10 minute long argument with a Xamerin representative about how retarded this was, as people have been embedding the Mono Runtime in their Mac apps for quite a long time now. But no, apparently we now pay for that.

I was on the Monotouch Beta and it looked so good. It's a pity the initial pricing was so absurd and even all these years later, it is still impossible to build an app for iOS with the Mono framework without a fee on top of the Apple Developer license. This is why I stuck with Objective-C.