Galen, welcome, and good questions. Some apple varieties are “Tip Bearers” and will actually set fruit on ‘one year’ wood. That also needs to be taken into account when eventually pruning your new tree… so as not to remove too much of its fruit bearing wood. What variety is it? - bet it’s a tip bearer " title="Wink" />

Also, with the multitude of folks bringing in their own scions to our 'exchange' we sometimes need to graft up to 3 year old wood because the newer stuff is nearly nonexistent. If that be the case, it would simply be a fruit bud doing its thing. Either way, I’d ‘cut’ off the spent blossom, for the exact reason’s you mention. Good catch and good call.