Apple Blocking PWAs on iOS is Not New
You might have read about Apple's recent skullduggery with regards to blocking PWAs (Progress Web Apps) in the EU, in response to the EU forcing apple to relinquish some control over their walled garden. But, near as I can tell, Apple has always, selectively, blocked PWAs. For example, if you don't love the YouTube app, and perhaps want to run it as a PWA (maybe you might use your own tracker/ad blocking stuff), you cannot. You can save it to your home screen, but it will not open as PWA; instead opening as a tab inside of safari. Youtube is a PWA, according to my lighthouse test result (see image), so it would seem Apple is choosing not to honor it's status as PWA. I have not seen a reason as to why this would happen, but I would have to assume it has something to do with Apple's business relationship to google, and nothing to do with any valid technical reasons against it. I would love to be wrong about this.
To be clear, this is stupid and rotten and makes me feel trepidatious about my very Apple-centric tech stack.