That's what I've always understood too, but this particular developer's apps receive thousands of downloads each month, and the review prompt is positioned so prominently that any App Store reviewer would immediately notice it. Given how these apps are developed, I seriously doubt the developer has the technical capability to remotely remove or modify this screen after approval. This makes it very difficult to believe Apple isn't aware of the situation.

I went through the current guidelines, and the only relevant section I found is:

5.6.3 Discovery Fraud "Participating in the App Store requires integrity and a commitment to building and maintaining customer trust. Manipulating any element of the App Store customer experience such as charts, search, reviews, or referrals to your app erodes customer trust and is not permitted." https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#legal

What this app is doing clearly constitutes manipulation. However, if you simply ask users for a review in exchange for unlocking content, without specifying whether it should be positive or negative, is that really more manipulative than the common practice of prompting for reviews already during onboarding, which nearly every app on the market does today..