The little experience I had with AppStore approval is that it’s mostly a game of persistence. They probably see some benefit from a little friction to prevent spam or perhaps it’s just pure stupid bureaucracy.

I was rejected for asking access to the camera. The App applied filters to images taken. I stated as much in XCode, something along: this app needs access to the camera in order to apply its effects. Rejected for not being clear enough. I reworded, basically adding more cruft: accepted.

I doubt the second version was clearer, in fact, it probably wasn’t. It feels much more like a test to see how much does this account want/need to publish and are willing to cooperate, than actually following rules that make any sense.