I don't think Apple will need (or want) to do anything "malicious" since Apple is implementing RCS the standard which between the carriers and Google mismanaging and fragmenting messaging for years - see: X carrier phones can only send RCS messages to X carrier phones, Google's implementation is not the RCS standard and is partially proprietary - it'll take a while to get S.S. RCS, The Standard steered right.
I hope Apple's involvement is ironically a kick in the butt to get everyone on the same page and get a standard rather than the current "Google iMessage" solution.