Every sufficiently big organisation starts doing it soon after the first bogus lawsuit that costs them millions of dollars.
Also, I would be extremely suspicious of any reform of the legal system coming from megacorps.
This is not to say the system cannot be improved, it's just wicked hard and you cannot blame any single actor for not doing that.
Taking 30% without providing alternatives to install apps seems totally unfair
It does feel prevalent in large corporations though.
It was a small display test app / game which apparently is not allowed as the users might start thinking they have a defective product (and perhaps ask for a refund / replacement).
Finally I asked them to give me their rejection in a formal email.
Two days later the support person called back and said they made 'an exception' in my case and are happy to fix it under warranty.
Cards usually also allow you to request a chargeback against defective goods for which a merchant refuses to make you whole. In this case you could probably call up Amex or whatever and say "I bought a laptop that is defective within the warranty period and apple refuses to RMA it, here's the proof..." and they'd do it no questions asked.
I've done both of these things with Amex and Chase and it's usually a painless process for each. With the chargeback route, however, it's common for companies to retaliate by closing your accounts or otherwise refusing you service until you reverse the chargeback. If you actually tried to chargeback the macbook I wouldn't be surprised if you found yourself with a "your iCloud account will be closed in 30 days" email. When I charged back a local CSA for refusing to cancel my subscription without an onerous phone tree despite multiple emails I received a voicemail saying, very politely, "Your account is now closed but you will be banned from ever opening a new account with us in the future."
Fine by me...
If it's a case of extended warranty, wouldn't the card company just require an official repair quote?