Web apps are a great way for Apple to cut App Store overhead and poor quality listings. Being able to refuse copycat apps, and things that are obviously just app wrappers around a website by telling the dev to “ship it as a web app instead” gives Apple an out.
It also means they can point to web apps as App Store competition, giving them ammo to fight off “monopoly” claims.
It wasn’t a shortsighted decision, it was just retaliation.
Web apps are a great way for Apple to cut App Store overhead and poor quality listings. Being able to refuse copycat apps, and things that are obviously just app wrappers around a website by telling the dev to “ship it as a web app instead” gives Apple an out.
It also means they can point to web apps as App Store competition, giving them ammo to fight off “monopoly” claims.