So Apple has even over-ridden its own directive
I suppose you could interpret it that way, however Apple has consistently insisted that all
Apple apps should remain in the /Applications folder or you risk update failure. To my personal knowledge this has been true since the Public Beta. So at least it is consistent with their long term practice.
But isn't the consistency unreasonable?
Apple apps can be expected to be used by all users of a particular Mac, but the MAS procedure dismisses the fact that not all 3rd party apps fall into that category, and, as a result, makes both user/parental control more cumbersome as well as more subject to "failure."