Well said! I'd ask the rhetorical question, "I wonder how Flappy Bird was able to take over peoples' lives?" but then if we knew that, every game would be a serious hit, using Flappy Bird's formula. 
I so agree with you on the "soul" of a game. I was willing to spend money in JJ to buy costumes for Barry because they were cute! They don't increase/decrease gameplay and even the jetpacks have really only a minor effect on gameplay with the quest of "Go X meters without harming any scientists" so you have to use non-weaponized jetpacks. However, I bought some because they played to my interest in their cute design. You can play the game just fine if you never buy a single add-on or never bother with any of the quests, if just collecting coins and avoiding objects is your interest.
A good game is fun on its own without needing add-ons via in-app purchases. The game doesn't become unplayable after certain levels because you don't have a certain add-on. A great game is fun without those add-ons and yet the add-ons look so fun that you want to willingly buy them anyway! That's my view, anyway.
I think that there's a unique challenge posed by iPhones- the main input and output are the same, which forces developers to balance the two (because all the other i/o on the device is a joke. I might as well be deaf because I don't even have the volume on ever. I don't like the accelerometer too much, and anyone who uniquely wants to use my mic or camera will most likely get denied. I'll also delete ANY APP that uses vibrations in-game, because I get extremely agitated and it wastes my battery. There are few things that anger me more than games that use vibration.) Many (if not all) of the iPhone games that I've played that use an on-screen joystick/button/D-pad set-up made me frustrated because I drift. Without the tactile sensation of a button, I don't know where to put my fingers. (Actually, despite the fact that I'm constantly using a laptop, I still look at my fingers while I type. I've gotten pretty good at it, and I'm able to sneak glances at the screen quite a bit, although this still interferes with my ability to play games like Minecraft sometimes.) I also think that fingers, given the fact that they are blunt, aren't well suited for tasks requiring precision, which some apps require. As a result, many apps use a combination of direction and duration of gestures to control things, but even this seems somewhat flawed. Or maybe I'm just disoriented, because I often want to scroll down in Safari, but I end up going sideways. Also, I've gotten VERY frustrated with a Rubik's Cube app that heavily used swipes, because the game rarely responded the way I wanted it to (I'm not sure if it's an issue in terms of code, either, in this case).
The controls (disregarding menus) that Flappy Bird uses are binary, to a point, as far as I can tell. Either you just pressed for a flap, or you didn't. Like a drum, which forces you to interpret "cues" from the music, and react accordingly. Playing drums may actually be simpler than FB, because FB requires you to have judgement. It's possible to successfully avoid a pipe, and have no choice but to ram yourself into the next. (This is all probably simplifying drums a lot, but the fact that I realize this gives me points. I'm not actually musical.) I don't think that there's much more to say about its mechanics.
I did feel that reading the article gave me insight. I genuinely think that the way that his game escalated was ruining his life. I don't think he intended it to be that big, and it also hints that he didn't just go get ripped sprites of pipes to use. I think I would have accepted the game if it was being played as it was intended to be. I now realize that a game has a double sided soul. One side is given by the creator, and the other is given by the player. I don't hate the small pieces of soul that the creator put into the game (apparently there are multiple death animations or something). I only hate the mean spirit that has come from its players (...there are many things I hate about the general population, though).
I think the reason why Flappy Bird took hold is only because of the flaws that people have, although I don't know which ones (because I don't know what exactly transpired in cases similar to the divorce that someone got over Flappy Bird). It's probably a blessing I don't know people like that (or at least the details of their lives).
