My bet is they decided to respond due to PR issues. The response from the EU will likely depend to some degree on the public reception of Apple. The Spotify pos

My bet is they decided to respond due to PR issues. The response from the EU will likely depend to some degree on the public reception of Apple. The Spotify post looked very strong, so even if they don't fully dismantle it (as you noticed they dodge some issues) they provide enough arguments that it isn't immediately clear to bystander who is right.