[_bxg1]

Sounds like they're really running up against a genuine conflict of trust. Apple doesn't really trust iOS apps to be "real programs" that just run on your device and do whatever they want, even sandboxed away from the rest of the system. Processing and data transfer is forced through Apple's special-made API hooks for purposes of battery life/performance management and privacy. Apple doesn't trust app developers, and developers of these apps don't trust the client OS.

I don't think there really is a single solution that works for everybody, although I wouldn't mind Apple providing an opt-in app permission for "make arbitrary network connections in the background". The privacy argument against that seems pretty academic, though the battery argument is stronger.