Ironically, consumers would probably benefit if Google could force handset manufacturers to do more things (like not replacing sensible bits of Android/Play wit

Ironically, consumers would probably benefit if Google could force handset manufacturers to do more things (like not replacing sensible bits of Android/Play with shite and to provide updates for the hardware lifetime of the phones) rather than less. That's assuming ignoring second-order effects on innovation and Google's continued benevolence of course, so probably not a good idea, but still.