Do you have a source for the "Appstore Google Maps" debacle?
I haven't heard that one before even though I owned a iPhone two/three years ago, and it seems very interesting!
This was shortly after Google Maps official release in response to the crap mandatory Apple Maps.
almost one year later it happened again, but this time another explanation was given:
That Google Maps was updating to 2.0 and removing the old app and put a new one, and that during the update you could not find it, and also that itunes has several separate search servers and you had to wait for them to synch with each other.
That second story I just found out, while looking for the first, so I dunno how true it is.