Apple says “no” to iPhone Opera Browser →
https://marco.org/2008/10/31/apple-says-no-to-iphone-opera-browser
In other words, “Apple rejects an application that their rules clearly state will be rejected, and no iPhone developer should be surprised.”
It wasn’t rejected because it duplicated Safari’s functionality. It was rejected because the SDK very clearly prohibits applications that download or run interpreted code.
Of course, that won’t stop ubernerds everywhere from threatening to switch to Android and a bunch of asshats writing stupid columns declaring Apple’s evil.