With the market getting overwhelmed with countless indie developers making the competition even more insane, is it still worth it to invest time developing mobile apps, if you don't have enough money to fund the level 99 mafia boss advertisements?
Answer 1
What's the opportunity cost of your time? When you are not developing apps, are you writing a novel that will constitute your legacy or inventing an early-stage cancer detection device that will cost $3 to manufacture or watching reruns on TV?Consider your alternatives, decide based on that. Good luck.
Answer 2
It depends on what kind of apps you want to make. If you have an idea for something that many people would find useful and would be profitable for you then I say go for it.As a general statement, however, I would say probably not. The best time to get into mobile app development was in the late 2000's and early 2010's.