Apple is surely aware of Little Snitch and other firewalls, and that the markets for that are dependant on a percentage of users who want absolute insight and control in to their network traffic. Similarly, there are journalists and sources who must by nature be very cautious about all network traffic. It would be hard to argue I think that Apple is unaware of both of these groups of users, and if they are aware; it must follow that it crossed their mind.

Whether that crossing their mind means they discarded it or intentionally chose to go against it may be a question that only gets answered in hindsight since Apple says very little publicly.