Look at the situation with PCalc and Transmit. Both apps which offered a killer feature, got approved by review and even featured by the editorial team, then pulled after having been on the front page of the App Store.
Neither of the apps got pulled. They got a warning. Whether the guidelines they were supposedly breaking were fair (or even existed) is a different thing.
You would think that if you haven't experienced launching dozens or hundreds of apps.
In reality many times the first review is cursory and approved. They actually bucket you as a low-risk and wait for you to succeed before you might flag serious concerns and be removed.
> The vast, vast, vast majority of people are not able to find a person at Google to have that discussion with in the first place.
If you are spending any significant time/resources developing apps, then you should invest a bit of time in networking. Go to conferences, and meet these people. They aren't that hard to find.
Because they're aiming to have things automated. They don't want to pay people to do these things when they feel that they should be able to automate it.
The vast, vast, vast majority of people are not able to find a person at Google to have that discussion with in the first place.
"Unless you are making apple SERIOUS revenue (think high6 to 7 figures) they will shut you down without even a response."
Apple tells you before your app goes live.