I think there are some reasons why Apple tries to exert such tight control over what software gets onto on iPhone. I’ve been jailbreaking my iPhone off and on (mostly on) for years – but I’ve worked in techie jobs for years so I’m an experienced and tech-savvy user. As in, I am far from the typical user of an iPhone or any smartphone for that matter. Apple’s efforts are focused on maintaining a smooth and immensely stable user experience – and they’ve achieved that. Tightly controlling what apps can do and how they can interact with springboard and with the system, as well as where apps can be installed from, is a good thing for typical users I’d say.
You may disagree – but there are reasons for Apple’s tight controls.

Hey Patrick, very true I never thought of that. I for one want control over my devices but I see how the experience for novice users would need to be different then for the likes of you and me.

I think the biggest question is why do some types of apps get approved and sold to customers only to have Apple yank them from the App Store whenever they feel like it. This just reminds me of the whole Google Voice incident all over again.

I can understand that Apple wants to control the App Store. That is completely fine with me. However, they really need to come up with a decent side-loading option.

I think Brett pointed out the real problem for me. It seems like Apple has
no idea what controls it wants to exercise. It is one thing to have clear
guidelines as to which apps will be allowed or not allowed. It is quite
another to allow apps into the store only to decide after the fact hat they
are to be excluded. This is frustrating for developers who spent their time
and money creating an app which they had no reason to suspect would be
yanked; and for consumers, especially if it is a paid app. This all just
reeks of arbitrariness. Control is one thing, but arbitrary control just
leads to frustration on all parts.