You could say the same for GNU. What is Linux without a DE? And a fancy DE like GNOME Shell pulls in a lot of dependencies, the latest furore in that area is GN

You could say the same for GNU. What is Linux without a DE? And a fancy DE like GNOME Shell pulls in a lot of dependencies, the latest furore in that area is GNOME&systemd. Difference between systemd and GMS is, developers aren't making money off of systemd being in their control, Google relies almost wholly on it for Android profits. Android is a fully functional Linux based operating system. To expect GMS to just be handed out like it was a keg party flier without considering the actual economic reality of running Google is ridiculous. OEMs like Samsung weren't fooled back in ~2004 to think they'd get an amazing OS for their phones for free, and the deal Google is offering is beyond amazing compared to how other (tech) firms do business. imo.