The history of smartphones is control being tightened further and further over time. With the phones you had, apps could track your location lots of different ways, and over time those data leaks are being bricked shut. Everything is moving in the direction from "Apps can do whatever they feel like" to "Apple controls what apps can do" to "The user controls what apps can do".

This specific leak seems like it's stuck in the "Apple controls what apps can do" stage, so hopefully this post will help get it moving again.

If you’re a software developer, you must understand that the user cannot actually understand what any code is doing. Even if you’re using open source, it’s an illusion to think you know what it’s doing. Heck, even the developer doesn’t know what it’s doing a lot of the time (how long does it take to figure out what’s happening with a tricky bug?).

So yes, Apple’s policies do mediate what a developer can do on behalf of the user. That’s how it works.