It is a huge deal. Apple is screwing up facebook, in order to promote themselves. I'm shocked if there are no anti trust implications.
Facebooks own challenging behaviour needs to be adressed, of course, but by taking this alleged step, Apple is demonstrating that we shouldn't rely on them to do so.
Besides, i hate irrelevant ads coming up on my search results, and apple don't even have the miserable excuse of needing the income to maintain their Store.