It seems likely that the success of the App Store was a surprise even to Apple, but once it took root (thanks in no small part to Push, and later IAP), Apple could fully pivot it's web strategy: the leader doesn't need a bridge; best to burn/deprecate it and dig an ever-deeper moat.
This is what Apple has done via its strategic under-investment in WebKit for the past decade.
/cc @chriscoyier @tomayac
Some folks still offer tortured arguments for why Apple is on the side of the angels, but they're transparently nonsense:
https://infrequently.org/2022/06/apple-is-not-defending-browser-engine-choice/
Apple, in 2023, keeps it boot on the neck of the web because it saw what the web did to Windows and wants anything but that for iOS. An open, interoperable meta-platform would reduce Apple's power to tax, and we just can't have that, now can we?
/cc @chriscoyier @tomayac