But that's kind of beside the point. I'm guessing that Apple's real objection to Flash on the iPhone is that they don't want Adobe to be in charge of something

But that's kind of beside the point. I'm guessing that Apple's real objection to Flash on the iPhone is that they don't want Adobe to be in charge of something that important. Apple likes to be in control of their own destiny, and they're one of the few companies with the clout to get away with something like that. I think it's something similar, but slightly different: that Apple doesn't want any code running on your iPhone that didn't go through the App Store.