The really horrible part of this story is all the effort he went to, trying to make his app compliant but all in vain. Is there no way to just ask "if I do this

The really horrible part of this story is all the effort he went to, trying to make his app compliant but all in vain. Is there no way to just ask "if I do this or that, will it be acceptable?" rather than just blindly trying things and resubmitting? I guess he's skirting around the fringes of what's acceptable as an app, but at what point do you draw the line between a "movie" and an app with video content? Remember those "interactive movies" that were popular in the 90's? What side of the fence do they sit on?