I realize it wasn't listed in the rules, but when Apple comes knocking on your door and gives you a reason for the rejection, and blatantly tells you "NO WIDGETS!", it shouldn't be hard to realize that the damn "nice things you can put on your photos" are what have to be removed.
It's more like pg suddenly deleting your comments here, telling you, "No obsequious comments", leaving you wondering just what how that applies to your comments.
For all you know, the whole app is a "widget." The term "widget" is semantically empty without a relevant context from which to derive a definition. It really just means "thing." The closest thing to a relevant definition on the iPhone is "user interface element," but clearly those are not banned from the platform.