If I had to guess, I would say that the resolution dependence has been a major contributing factor to the high UI/UX quality in iOS applications. Yes, there are other aspects to consider, but this single design decision has a lot of benefits to developers.
It's definitely a major contributor to the simple fact that iOS apps, on average, look a whole lot better than Android apps. That being said, it's a burden on Apple hardware designers that will only increase with time.
It's a tough decision if there is an elegant solution out there, I can only hope that Apple is already working on it.
This is a good point. I wonder if they could go half way on resolution independence, a hybrid solution of some sort. They don't really need true resolution independence since they control all the hardware. But if they had something that worked within certain parameters it would ease up the burden on the hardware designers and iOS developers without hurting the UX...
