Counterargument: Apple's review process is more likely to let "some guy's" app slip through the cracks and make it in the App Store than the official app of one of its huge competitors with an install base of many, many, many millions of devices.
It streams Spotify directly without your phone and has a very flaky offline mode.
The developer tweeted that Spotify (not Apple) asked him to remove it four days after it reached the App Store.
I was lucky enough to get hold of it in that brief window and use it often.
On the other hand Spotify did squash this guy's app. That's a thing that happened. So it's not like the APIs aren't there.
So now we're taking Spotify's word that Apple is keeping them off the app store, while ignoring the fact that said app is possible and they themselves have kept an app off the app store.
Sounds like PR bullshit all around.