Why would apple have released a whole white paper on the feature if the plan was… to do it in secret? Clearly they could have gone the google route, start scanning and not tell anyone about it. It’s so odd to blame them for something they haven’t done.

Of course they could decide later to implement it! Just like any company could choose to do that! It’s the whole point, your phone is closed source. But clearly apple didn’t pick that route, they announced it BEFORE shipping and asked for feedback! And you’re blaming them for that?!