While it didn’t exist back then there’s been an actual file manager for a while now, and long before that files could be downloaded and opened by (hence stored with) apps, and then shared onwards if later settling on a different pdf reader or whatever.
Other approaches like using iTunes to transfer files (again, to some specific app), while clunkier and less intuitive than mass storage, still worked.
Apps like VLC could spin up a temp web server for file upload, and again if using device to pull from something instead of pushing from eg desktop to it, a lot of scripting and automation has been possible, essentially piping data and files between apps.
So at its core I think it’s more about having a very app-centric approach, including leaving it up to apps whether (and how) to work at file level.
Not exactly helping but hardly preventing either.
Of course being accessible, nudging people towards sourcing their media through Apple etc are factors here, but there’s more to it than just limitations, and it hasn’t really been as heavy-handed or locked-down as many seem to think.
Edit: whoops, started writing this before the other posts mentioning the same things, then returned and finished without refreshing. Oh well.
Other approaches like using iTunes to transfer files (again, to some specific app), while clunkier and less intuitive than mass storage, still worked.
Apps like VLC could spin up a temp web server for file upload, and again if using device to pull from something instead of pushing from eg desktop to it, a lot of scripting and automation has been possible, essentially piping data and files between apps.
So at its core I think it’s more about having a very app-centric approach, including leaving it up to apps whether (and how) to work at file level. Not exactly helping but hardly preventing either.
Of course being accessible, nudging people towards sourcing their media through Apple etc are factors here, but there’s more to it than just limitations, and it hasn’t really been as heavy-handed or locked-down as many seem to think.
Edit: whoops, started writing this before the other posts mentioning the same things, then returned and finished without refreshing. Oh well.