I'd agree but for one fact. OEMs have entered into these agreements freely. Amazon (and CyanogenMod&co) aren't the lucky outsiders, they're the ones proving the

I'd agree but for one fact. OEMs have entered into these agreements freely. Amazon (and CyanogenMod&co) aren't the lucky outsiders, they're the ones proving the openness of Android. The inability to separate AOSP from Google's services irritates me. Google is leaving the door open for anyone to compete with them; use AOSP -a fully functional OS- and provide a better service than Google products offer, you won't owe Google a dime, and you'll be a serious competitor. As far as I know, there's nothing stopping an independent OEM from releasing unlocked devices. An end user is free to install gapps on his own, and it's laughably easy to do.