The funny thing is that in iPhone OS 1, Apple only supported web apps, which could be (and still can be) saved to the home screen. The App Store didn't exist. The full desktop class web browser was a major feature of the iPhone. That was clearly the company's vision for the platform.

Developers clamored for a native API, which they got the next year.

They have recently announced they wouldn't support many of the APIs needed/useful for PWAs

edit: I was a wrong in thinking they severely limited PWAs, they still allow Service Workers although with a 7-Day Cap on All Script-Writeable Storage. Not as bad as I thought.

These are the APIs they declined to implement: https://www.zdnet.com/article/apple-declined-to-implement-16...

Most of them involve access to peripherals (USB, Serial, HID, NFC, Bluetooth, MIDI), sensors (magnetometer, proximity, ambient light), and device state (battery status, memory pressure, network information).

Several of these are not even available to native applications on iOS.

Yes there are categories of apps that require a few of these, but certainly the majority do not require any.

Why downvote? I would be happy to be wrong

I didn't downvote, but probably because of "needed/useful for PWAs," which seems to be incorrect.