While you are correct, the concern to which you have responded to is by no means the community's primary one.
Yes, it is true Apple rejected the app due to private API's. It was against the rules to use those API's, and Apple was within their right to reject them. Just as it is within the communities right to petition Apple afterwards and ask them to open up those API's.
The concern now is that without any form of communication, Apple has gone and released an alternative. It is a "ripoff", and there's no two ways about it. The people from f.lux were very diplomatic in their response.
(You can call it an inbuilt feature instead of an "App" all you want, but the US Department of Justice and EU Regulators have had long-standing concerns against OS vendors bundling in features in an effort to stem competition. To say nothing of the irrelevance of how the feature is distributed.)
I do wonder if it's a ripoff. I'd heard of this idea before flux, and I wonder if Apple is nimble enough to be able to 'respond' that quick. Frankly I doubt it, especially if they put lots of thought into it.
I mentioned 'app' because if it WAS an app (which isn't their style, even their apps are often bundled with the OS it would be especially egregious since they'd be doing the exact thing they told flux not to (and as we all know Apple is happy to break their own rules).
I completely agree that in the anti-trust sense (like what happened to MS) the app/built in this is irrelevant.
Respond "that quick"? Flux has been around for years on all major operating systems. It's even been around for years on the iPhone, and is commonly cited as one of the main reasons that people jailbreak.
It's not really the case that they attempted to evade the distribution system and then play the victim card. They've had no illusions that it would likely remain exclusive to the jailbreak community due to the nature of the platform and Apple's rules.
When Apple surprised everyone by saying they would allow sideloading in Xcode 7/iOS 8, f.lux thought great, we'll post it so non-jailbreakers can have it as well. Apple asked them to remove the sideloading variant shortly after, not because it uses private APIs, but because they were not distributing the source. It's always remained available to jailbroken devices (see https://justgetflux.com/cydia/).
Yes, it is true Apple rejected the app due to private API's. It was against the rules to use those API's, and Apple was within their right to reject them. Just as it is within the communities right to petition Apple afterwards and ask them to open up those API's.
The concern now is that without any form of communication, Apple has gone and released an alternative. It is a "ripoff", and there's no two ways about it. The people from f.lux were very diplomatic in their response.
(You can call it an inbuilt feature instead of an "App" all you want, but the US Department of Justice and EU Regulators have had long-standing concerns against OS vendors bundling in features in an effort to stem competition. To say nothing of the irrelevance of how the feature is distributed.)