You can top up your wallet however you like, buying through the Apple Store was a requirement from Apple.
I don't understand what you mean. I can top my wallet off any way I like BUT I have to buy through Apple? That makes no sense. What am I missing?
No, you get a regular lighting address, and you can top up any way you want just like any other Lightning address. But Apple doesn’t allow promotions of those other means in the app itself, and mandates a way to get sats via the in-app purchases. So you won’t see any other way to top it up in the app, we were forbidden from even mentioning it, but you can always do it.