Not to sound rude or insensitive to your opinion, but that is why there are other phones on the market to choose from. And, it is apparent from their success that the policy is not hurting sales. As an iPhone user and an IT person, I can both appreciate and dislike the approval process. But, for about 95% of iPhone users, they either could care less that some obscure app got disapproved, or more likely, did not even know about it.
Androids' recent increase in market share can no doubt be partially attributed to it's openness, but it also has much to do with the multiple manufactures of the platform and multiple carriers it is available on.
As for the phone in question in this article, I believe based on the custom Disney case the Eris is pictured in, it is likely this will be a rentable device (at least initially) vs a down loadable app. It seems somewhat unlikely they would make a custom case for a specific model phone for purposes of testing an app.