What will that buy them? I mean, the watch has already been usable without an iPhone if you spend the extra money on cellular. But the watch doesn't really reach its full potential until paired with an iPhone. Who would even buy a *truly* independent Apple Watch? Without iPhone integration, it would essentially be a very expensive Fitbit.
And, as another poster mentioned, there really isn't much of a market for independent Apple Watch apps. I'm on my third watch and have yet to install an app that was truly independently useful - oh, wait, there was that workout app which allowed me to stay in a preferred heart rate zone....never mind - even that app needed to write its health/workout data back to the iPhone's Health app/data store.