You're right. Apple probably does this on purpose because they knew they would be trying to do their own phone and car integration. Easy way to get better adoption if your competitor can't do a comparable feature.
MFT has been good in principle, but execution has been poor. For instance, why does it sometimes take 10 seconds to index on the music on my phone, and the next time it won't complete the index? Unplug and plug in the phone multiple times to get it to work.
Not to mention MFT has completely locked up twice and is impossible to remedy without restarting the vehicle multiple times. "Kids, the radio quit working, let me pull off the highway so I can turn the vehicle off and on".
I bought the vehicle more for the fuel economy, engine output, aesthetics, and convenience features more than MFT.