They are already allowing apps to do stuff which is against the rules. I am on a personal crusade on Twitter against apps that spam me with notifications to "come back".
I also hate this, but what rule does that violate? Perhaps 4.5.4?
> 4.5.4 Push Notifications must not be required for the app to function, and should not be used for advertising, promotions, or direct marketing purposes or to send sensitive personal or confidential information.
It's a should and not a must... I'm not sure if they enforce all "shoulds." Also, from a review perspective, how could you tell? These sort of notifications are typically triggered after days (or hours) of inactivity, and I don't think they observe your app that long.
If you, as a user, complained about an app doing this to Apple, I wonder if they'd pull it.
I do not think that Apple has the means to test this in the review, but maybe there should be a way to mark spam notifications somehow.
What I do now is that I complain to the developer/company twitter accounts. Most of the time I receive very hopeful and polite replies and ... nothing gets fixed.
I'm sorry you feel this way, but our market studies have shown that most of our users respond positively to being spammed daily, and almost all of them come back and spend money as a result!!!!111!
Apple does static binary analysis + manual testing of apps before release. It's the same way they can prevent you from charging money for things without going through in-app purchases and Apple's 30% cut, or even from showing a website that lets you purchase things without going through in-app purchases (this is why, for instance, Kindle for Android lets you buy books and Kindle for iOS doesn't).
