What difference does this make? Some lower level employee will see this, roll his eyes, and then continue on with his day.

you push back every step of the way. that’s how you deal with it. Apple maps reporting getting shut down for this is a sign that someone at a higher level took notice and it will have feedback to even higher leadership. So yes, this is feedback, even if companies do company things, it’s also sending a signal that on the long run their company things might be better off aligning with the users. Is this gonna make any difference on its own? Nope, but a million of things like this may.