The problem is Free as in Beer and Free as in Speech are related.
The issue is not $1 downloads so much at is the overhead, pain and issues that come along with it.
It's hard to manage and control downloads, usage, and the legal issue might be that any hint of licensing problem makes it 'no go' from a corporate perspective.
So the gap between 'Free Beer and Speech' and 50-cent Beer and Speech is enormous.
If it's free as in freedom then the first downloader to pay $1 can just mirror it and allow free downloads.
Free as in freedom always necessarily denotes free as in beer as well. It's not an accident or side effect.
But the mirror may be less convenient. This works for OsmAnd+ for example: it's FOSS, free (as in beer) on FDroid, but costs 25$ on Google Play.