The fact that all of this still has had to be deduced ad hoc in some reverse engineering-type paradigm also should give anyone pause. The fact packet filtering

The fact that all of this still has had to be deduced ad hoc in some reverse engineering-type paradigm also should give anyone pause. The fact packet filtering works is better than if it didn't but that's almost besides the point. The problem is Apple deliberately obfuscating important security details from the user. It's literally asserting privilege of itself over the user/device owner in an essential way, if not entirely through filtering protocol than through informing about the protocol.