I think you're spot on. Also, refer to last year's WWDC app. Everyone thought there would be a more silver like UIKit coming, but that didn't happen. I would g

I think you're spot on. Also, refer to last year's WWDC app. Everyone thought there would be a more silver like UIKit coming, but that didn't happen. I would guess that there was already pressure to remove some skeuomorphism at that point.