I hear everything this poster is complaining about. In fact, our shop self-restricts our use of LinkedIn's API because we fear that if we or our customers became too reliant upon it, either a. we'd be cut off (for some nonsense reason we'd be told we were not compliant with the API TOS) or b. (like the OP) we would not be allowed to join the LinkedIn Partner Program.

On a cynical level, I wonder if companies who advertise on LinkedIn have better luck joining the LinkedIn Partner Program. Does anyone have data points on this?