[echelon]

> Even though you could technically allow installing a complete development toolchain on an iPad, I can't imagine what the process would look like in practice.

Like every other computer ever.

> Imagine the customer support burden if you are the maintainer of some app that depends on external tools that can be used in a zillion different build/deploy configurations.

Microsoft and Google seem to work just fine. People seem to be able to ship when they have the tools to do so.

> They are policy decisions that kind of make sense for a device like a tablet or phone though.

They are strategic decision under the guise of policy decisions. Apple is "protecting you from dangerous apps" (read: dangerous apps = competition for Apple).

Apple is anti-competitive.