On iOS, if you want to get your location at all via any app, even an app that keeps the locations it receives on the device, you automatically consent to having your location sent to Apple, and Apple doesn't even tell the user that they're doing this unless they go out of their way to find the privacy policy.
I think this is exactly what the average user would expect. In fact, users may not think location services have been disabled if apps are still able to show their location after the fact.
Do you happen to know if the location look-up (probably for nearby hotspots) is anonymized or not? I can imagine this would be an issue if your specific query can be tied to a specific device. Obviously this isn't an issue if you have Find my iPhone enabled since you consent to Apple having your location anyways.
Why would people expect that they can't get their location without telling Apple? On Google Android devices, there is a separate toggle to turn the ability to request your location on and off device-wide in the quick settings toggle that is separate from the ability to turn Google Location Services on and off, which you have to open the full device settings app to toggle after initial setup.