Because suddenly dropping support for an app reflects badly on you and your brand. But supporting something at a loss is even worse -- it has a financial cost, and it has an even larger opportunity cost. It's many businesspeople's worst nightmare.

But if Apple orders the abrupt discontinuation of your product you have a face-saving way to wash your hands of the affair. It's Apple's fault! Don't forget to make a big public show of how Apple made you drop the product - and not by degrees, but cold-turkey.

Apple could put a badge on the App Store listing saying that it has been discontinued, etc. It would only show up for current users anyway and right now you have no way to communicate with your users about what happened (you don't even get to know who they are to contact them after Apple pulls you).