Apple’s decisions on this issue are entirely consistent with their business model as a hardware company. Allowing private APIs to be used liberally causes those to be de facto public APIs. When those APIs are very low level, they enable companies like Google to build frameworks that bypass Apple’s own.

In the long run, if nobody uses Apple’s APIs and everyone prefers cross platform ones, then they lose exclusive apps and Apple hardware becomes an overpriced commodity.

It’s the same business model as Nintendo, just with more expensive hardware and cheaper software. Really, none of the game console makers want all of their software to be cross platform. Exclusives are what sell consoles.

Or allowing undocumented, private APIs to be used liberally makes it harder for Apple to make important changes.

Certainly, Apple places a lower priority on backwards compatibility than, say, Microsoft, but they do give people warning when they’re going to change a public API.

"Software Sells Systems" used to be their motto and it's apt for how they treat the Mac and iOS. If the platforms don't have platform-specific apps, they become a commodity and lose those margins.

Software sells systems, so therefore they should reduce the amount of software available on their platforms by making it harder for developers to create?

The logical counterargument would be that good software sells system.

It's an argument I would be much more open to if Apple wasn't also pushing terrible Catalyst apps for the Mac.

If the software runs on the browser, you don’t need a Mac or an iPhone to get it.

Yes, curation is an important service that provides great value to end users.

Good software not exclusive software sells a system for me.