Pricing like this:

$7.23 $5.48 $9.21

is just ugly and feels cheap. It's the same reason they have UX standards generally.

Why does anyone care about 1 cent on a $5 purchase? Does anyone here care? The new price points seem to provide enough flexibility with less disadvantage.

From a business perspective, if I had to guess the increased cognitive load would decrease shopping time and increase decision fatigue. I'd also guess that the retail industry has studied this endlessly, and that Apple is basing their pattern partially on this.

This also decreases opportunities for useless psychological price competition and focuses people on quality. Do I want the $1.82 product or the $1.93 product? You probably want the BETTER product.

I think you're probably better off having your prices at $0.99, $2.99, and $5.99 rather than $0.84, $2.72, $5.63, even tho the latter is cheaper, particularly if you are in a large store that has thousands of prices.