It's not about not being intuitive. It's about the trade off that leads to an emphasis of the design elements for the content. Then functionality.
A way to think about it is that iOS 7 gets closer to real world interaction. You don't press a button to sit in your chair, you just sit on it because you know how to do it.
> You don't press a button to sit in your chair, you just sit on it because you know how to do it.
A microwave oven might be a better example, since a chair is inert.
On a microwave one has to have discoverable controls. Imagine if everything was just flat with the fascia, looking no different in presentation to the maker's logo.
It might say 'Cooking power: 80%' with no indication of how to adjust. Apparently, though, if you press on the word 'power' repeatedly you can change it!
Microwaves are one of my favorite examples of poor user interfaces. Why is it so difficult to figure out how to do the most obvious thing: turn microwave on at max power for X seconds?
> A way to think about it is that iOS 7 gets closer to real world interaction. You don't press a button to sit in your chair, you just sit on it because you know how to do it.
You explanation is just the contrary, you press the + button because you have tried to push it without knowing what will do.
Background fetch actually provides a solution this exact use case. If the user uses your app enough for iOS to let you run in time, the app should be able to "get ready" before the user opens it.
How so? You can know all the state you want, but iOS is still going to display that one static image. If the user is returning from background into a photo gallery, it's still going to show your default image. If the user is opening the app directly into a conversation, it's still going to show your default image.
Developing for iOS without going through the UX guidelines is a pretty good way to make an app that will not endure the recklessness of the App Store business.
There is a new settings screen in iOS7 called "Background App Refresh" (under General) which allows users to disable app refreshes altogether or to turn off the ability for specific apps
A way to think about it is that iOS 7 gets closer to real world interaction. You don't press a button to sit in your chair, you just sit on it because you know how to do it.