People all over the internet today in various discussion forums, including on HN in multiple submissions, have already drawn the obvious conclusion, without having read my comments, and their conclusion is almost universally the opposite of yours.

> To prevent further bad publicity, obviously.

It prevents any sales, which is the point of selling in the App Store. But why do you think there's so much bad publicity, if there's nothing wrong with the app?

It's unclear why it even matters who exactly removed the app from the App Store, because Apple's rules do not allow developers to deceive App Store users, and you've already more or less admitted that the app is deceptive. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39308175 Although I don't know how you can justify saying that it's "at most" deception rather than "at least" deception, because "Trusted by over 1+ million users and 10,000+ businesses" is a flat out lie. Thus, even if the developer refused to remove the app, Apple should have anyway.