This reads like a crybaby manager upset with their future metrics.
My micro-ISV stopped shipping an iOS app a few years ago when Safari's support for PWAs made it viable to reimplement our app as a PWA so that we no-longer needed to deal with App Store hassle (faffing around with a Mac Mini we'd only use a few times a year, confusing certificates/entitlements/etc, not to mention the capriciously enforced store app review policies).
...but I'm probably just being nostalgic for the early days of indie iOS apps. Those times are long gone, perhaps Apple actually isn't interested in attracting small devs to their platform anymore?