Even if that did happen, I was under the impression that the credit bureaus combine similar hard pulls into just one if made within a short amount of time?
Yup, that's true. Similar to hunting for a lower rate for, say, a car loan.
People should know that many store cars purposefully DON'T accept people with great credit or exceptionally high scores/income. The supposed reason being that 1) those people likely have better cards they'll be more likely to actually use (and possibly leave a balance on), and 2) they're unlikely to keep large balances to generate interest payments, and 3) they are less likely to miss payments, which credit cards love for the late fees.
Someone can make $150K/yr and have an 800+ score with 10+ years of history and fail to get approved for a Best Buy card at 29%, but then can open up an AMEX Platinum with a $40K limit and a shit ton of perks for $495/year the very next day.
It'll be interesting to see how the Apple Card eventually falls.