If that's Apple's motivation, why have they been implementing PWAs at all? Killing them would be even simpler if they just weren't on iOS in the first place.
They’ve been on iOS since the beginning, predating the App Store. They were originally supposed to be the only public API for building 3rd party apps on iOS.
For a long time they appeared to be in maintenance mode on iOS. They’re still years behind what Chrome allows PWAs to do.
Apple has also added PWA to Desktop Safari in the latest OS release (which seems to work well for Tana). So their Safari team is putting some continuing effort behind PWA in general.
I used this when I was taking a break from chrome, because Firefox cancelled their PWA support for Desktop.
So... you're saying that having PWAs is purely performative because nobody actually uses PWAs... meaning that the loss of PWAs has no impact on customers?
As far as I'm concerned, it's just an argument for them to use in antitrust lawsuits. "See, they could have developed a web app if they aren't happy with our store". It's better to keep an option opened, especially if it's not good enough to be used.
