That does sound bad. On Symbian the store is a separate app that takes care of everything for you. The install is done in the background and you can launch the app directly from the store app.

Each app has up to three screenshots and description text, but this depends on the publisheer.

Depending on when you wanted to publish, it might be better now because they allow individual developers and you get free signing (for Symbian).

P.S: As a developer I'm happy that the prices are higher. :) 0.99 is ridiculously cheap for software.