Running to the press implies a kneejerk reaction. It could equally be argued that they're saying you should engage them in meaningful discussion about the problems they have with your submission. When an app is rejected I believe there is always the possibility of a two-way discussion with the submission team.
The larger subtext is that this is their platform, and they want to keep the quality bar high. Therefore, publication of your app is their perogative, not your right.
On that note, yes it is not amateur hour. If you want to publish an app, Apple provide all the resources to help you do it - but if for example your app is buggy, it's amateur and will be rejected - seems fair enough to me.
It makes perfect sense for Apple to have standards for publishing software on their store. What complicates the discussion is that they prevent users from installing software from other sources than their store. This is different than most other popular computing platforms except for game consoles.
The larger subtext is that this is their platform, and they want to keep the quality bar high. Therefore, publication of your app is their perogative, not your right.
On that note, yes it is not amateur hour. If you want to publish an app, Apple provide all the resources to help you do it - but if for example your app is buggy, it's amateur and will be rejected - seems fair enough to me.