I think people forget that the original intention of the IPhone was to run web apps. Once the clamoring for native app development became too big the beast known as the app store was born.
Apple was pushing HTML5 as much as anyone else if not more.
Agreed. I would say they still are pushing as hard if not more.
To claim that it was only ever because of Google is unfair at best.
I certainly never made that claim so I don't know where you're getting that from.
My point is that Apple is pushing HTML5 hard right now and if they ever stop, I'll get nervous. How will I know if they stop pushing? If/when the Google team is implementing features developers care about and Apple doesn't. Competition is good.