Apple wants everything to go through their store. (1) so they can ban anything they don't like. (2) they can get their 30% (can't get 30% of websites)
They only added support for push notifications to iOS in 2023 (7 years after Firefox and 8 years after Chrome on Android), right after the UK regulator started its investigation in mobile ecosystems.
Could be just die hard fans or current employees/investors, but... I've seen and read enough to know how these games are played by all relevant players. Again, this is too important and trivial to infiltrate place to ignore by many many players. Sure mods can remove outright lies but the key is in subtle ways crowds can be manipulated via ie direct attack on negative emotions, or mildly revisioning history one step at a time.
Of course, Apple $1B legal department thought they had to kill web apps to conform with the DMA whose purpose is to open iOS to competition. Sure ;)
It's really not. Self important maybe
Perhaps this is why Apple dragged their feet.