If someone were to sue them for any reason related to rejection of an app submission, they could probably obtain an injunction to bring that bullshit to a screeching halt. Just saying.
Here's the thing: why should anyone trust that you will actually honor this 3-day money back guarantee, or that even if you honor it now that you will continue to honor it in the future? Part of the benefit of the App Store payment system is that it puts the user in control of their trials and subscriptions and lets them easily manage, cancel, and request refunds in a way that is guaranteed. But if your refund form magically disappeared one day, no one would have any recourse against that.
My app has been repeatedly rejected because I do not offer free in-app trials (but offer money-back guarantee on my website) and also do not offer in-apps purchases. I asked if I offered in-app purchases, would the app be approved? No, since I offer 3-day money-back guarantee on website-based purchses, I must ALSO offer a free trial in the app. But I don’t want to offer free trials. I’m ok offering a 3-day money-back guarantee, but Apple says that’s not an option for apps. They insist that I (1) change my business model from 3-day money back guarantee to free trial and (2) purchase a shit ton more infrastructure to handle the audience that free trials attract (I’ve tried free trial business model and it created a lot of use but no more revenue than 3-day money back guarantee). The money-back guarantee seems to weed out a lot of free loaders, at least in this domain — not necessarily others.
Look again: He (/u/egocentric) linked to his HN submission of his twitter thread about his experience. What you are referencing is the top comment in the that discussion, by someone else (/u/TedDoesntTalk) talking about their app. So your (understandable) ire is directed at the wrong person here.
I've had my own share of similar experiences with Apple in the past, one of which was here on HN recently: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23585682
Apple currently has an unreasonable amount of control not only on what apps can be available on their devices, but also on how they look, work, and generate revenue. They allow 3rd-party innovation to occur only down specific paths that they deem beneficial.
On top of everything, Apple is also systematically erasing all App Review rejection communications [1] and keeping most of this abuse in the dark, thus buying themselves more time to stay in this dominant position.
Something definitely needs to change here, hopefully sooner than later.
[1] https://www.change.org/p/apple-let-us-browse-all-our-past-re...