I understand the decision made. I think that an app (iOS/Andriod whatthefeckever) would open up Villa Talk to a wider audience aswell as stopping me from having to open up a web browser to opine when on the move. While the mobile site does indeed work very well ... in my personal opinion given the choice I would buy an app rather than go onto my browser everytime I want to check the forum.
I admit the differences between the two would be nominal to begin with, however if you think outside the box there are many lucrative opportunities (games, advertisements, donations, sales of the app itself, merchandise etc etc). I admit I am not 'up to speed' on the costing to implement such an app but I do think it would be a step forward, certainly not a step backwards anyhow