Not really. If I write and compile a program using C, it links against the OS's APIs. If I write the same program using C++, same thing. And it's still the same thing if I write it using Pascal, or Fortran, or Go, or Eiffel, or Caml, or Modula.

This is clearly Apple explicitly trying to limit the features of iPhoneOS, probably to prevent any sort of interpreted or virtual-machine-based constructs, and going at it like using an elephant rifle to kill a gnat.

Just to pick one thing that comes to mind, it means that any Infocom adventure game interpreters (that is, Z-machines, like Frotz) are forbidden.