That's true and it's one of the main reasons I use a Google phone. But it's also true that you don't need an OS-level update to get a lot of the newest features

That's true and it's one of the main reasons I use a Google phone. But it's also true that you don't need an OS-level update to get a lot of the newest features and services on Android. Google has broken out a lot of their services and apps into separate updates so you can get them even if you're not running the latest version of Android. I don't need an OS update to get the latest Chrome or Gmail or Maps, for example, unlike iOS.