The Apple Card/Goldman Sachs aren't looking for certain reasons as to why they should approve you. Rather, they are looking for reasons not to approve you, which is true of most financial institutions. They want low risk and high profit.
Personally, I too have been denied by them. When it first launched, I applied and was denied for "recently been past due" because I had a 4 year old paid charge-off showing on my report. 4 years ago is not necessarily "recent" in my opinion. After I got that item removed from my report, I re-applied. They denied me again for "too many applications for credit that resulted in hard inquiries on your credit file." While I did have too many inquiries (7), they said my score at that time was 805. So having established credit, a good score, and low utilization made no difference. Too many inquiries was enough for them to deny me. Getting denied for stuff like this doesn't mean you have bad credit, it just means you may be applying for the wrong type of credit at the wrong time. I say re-apply again after you fix your utilization/loan balance issue. It doesn't cause any harm since it is a soft pull.
