I don't like defending Google here but the status quo is also heavily favorable to users. For a good number of years users were begging Google to put their heel

I don't like defending Google here but the status quo is also heavily favorable to users. For a good number of years users were begging Google to put their heel to the throats of OEMs who dropped support for their devices after only a few years, couldn't get the latest version of Android, couldn't run new versions of apps, and had to deal with the garbage OS customizations and apps OEMs shipped. People wanted a PC like experience where it doesn't matter what hardware you bought you ran the same Google provided software. And we're still not there yet. The marketing for the original Nexus devices was "Android with the Google stuff you wanted and not the OEM shovelware." I think it's a very reasonable stance that folks buying Android are doing so because they want and expect the Google stuff and this was just the stick Google had to get there.