It looks like we now know the cause of the iPhone SDK Licensing change is.  According to AppleInsider, in a email discussion suppossedly with Steve Jobs, the quote is:

.....,and said he believes there are a number of applications written with cross-platform frameworks that are "amazing," such as Mozilla Firefox. Jobs, Slepak said, responded to his second note in about three minutes.

"We've been there before, and intermediate layers between the platform and the developer ultimately produces sub-standard apps and hinders the progress of the platform," he wrote.

There you go.  It appears that Apple doesn't want cross platform frameworks because they produce substandard apps and hinder progress.  My response:

• Bad developers/management produce bad applications.  Development systems, management styles, and the man-in-the-moon do not create good apps.  You have to have good developers.  "You know what makes a good coach? Good players."
• Intermediate layers/cross platform tools hinder progress of the platform. 
• Layers/Frameworks bring more developers to a platform, increasing its value.
• The statement implies that these frameworks use private APIs. Apps that use private APIs should not be accepted in the first place.  Can't Apple police their own AppStore?
• If the framework/layer uses public APIs, what is the technical problem?  Is Apple not smart enough to keep their public APIs compatible between releases of the iPhone OS?
• At one time, there was a complaint about java running on the Mac that java apps didn't look like Mac apps.  That's because the apps weren't designed to be.  The market figured this out.  That's why java on the desktop hasn't really made it.  Why do we need Apple to make decisions that the marketplace would come to in and of itself.
• Honestly, this seems like nothing more than an ideological response.  It makes Apple sound like that are "saving" the iPhone ecosystem and users from evil App Store developers.  You can't argue with ideology.  Its like saying "My god is stronger than your god."  There is no winner, only more speculation and yelling.  The fanboys will scream how "See its great, Apple is protecting us from those evil developers."  Its Apple's world, and we are just playing in it, so guess who wins in this argument?

The more I read about this, the more it reads like Apple is just trying to get back at Adobe.  I would hope that a direct statement from Apple would clear this issue up.  I'm not holding my breathe on this.

And now I have heard that you are not allowed to use a third party to get application analytics on the iPhone. 

So Apple has now become the Big Brother from their own 1984 Commercial.

Hey Novell, when is MonoDroid going to get here?