With the ARM, you can develop on a native LINUX and port the code using widely accepted, supported, and understood software tools.

There\'s no comparison at all!
which serious developer would want to use tools with no guaranteed support? I can see hobbyists liking 'free'

and
I doubt it matters what the part costs in quantities under 1k units. Only developers, who can get the small quantities for free for the asking as samples, and hobbyists, who really don't matter to the manufacturer, care about quantities under 100.

the first quote states that hobbyists like the ARM, the secons state that it does not matter what hobbyists want.

Erik