Jeebus.
Best Buy's alteration of benefits in their loyalty program is not evidence of Apple's demands of its retailers, and almost certainly has anything to do with Apple at all. It's Best Buy being Best Buy, providing shoppers with sh!tty service, and treating customers with borderline hostility and no transparency. BB was at the forefront of using third party data aggregators to track returns (granted, there are issues with abuse) and act as judge/jury with no recourse, as well as requiring customers to be an elevated member of their loyalty program to avoid the terms of their mediocre return policy.
That is a different topic not to be conflated with the MAP pricing policies commonly employed by luxury brands, and not exclusive to Apple. They may not be friendly to consumers, but they do have the benefit of protecting all retailers, in addition to the manufacturer, by providing a level playing field, and helping to preserve brand equity.
Consumers benefit as well, as the value of the goods are preserved to a certain extent, which helps the secondary market. That two-year old iPhone X you babied can still be worth ~$400 in part because there was little alternative to paying $1000 for one when it was new.
Competition based solely on price is a race to the bottom, and doesn't benefit the producer or their retailers. It ultimately hurts consumers, as it encourages product and retailing standards to fall to chase cost cuts and lower pricing.
If Apple does have unfriendly retailer policies, it's not in the form of MAP pricing.
In more general terms, manufacturers can be unfriendly in terms of minimum order requirements, store branding/display requirements, marketing support requirements, or simple inventory allocation.
BB, as crappy as they are, is a large retailer that has no problems meeting Apple's demands, and thus remains an Apple reseller as well as service provider.
Save your tears for the specialty independent resellers who used to serve as the backbone of Apple's retail presence, and have disappeared as Apple squeezed them not only by becoming a competitor, but by strangling them in other ways. The opening of Apple Stores also resulted in a brain drain, as the well-versed Apple veterans who staffed the indies took up places as Geniuses and other roles in Apple's own stores. That was a key part of helping the initiative to become successful, though things have changed over time, but that's another story.
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