1. Why hasn’t Google pulled the plug and thrown in the white towel yet? People have voted with their wallets and chosen Samsung and Apple.
2. Why is the Pixel devices getting such a massive news coverage? Other smartphone ORM’s with similar market share doesn’t get the same treatment.
1. Pixel Camera taught Samsungs and iPhones about computational photography pipelines and Night Sight,
2. Recorder,
3. Photos + various editing features (Top Shot / Best take / Magic Eraser),
4. Phone + various features (Call Screening(US) / Hold for Me(US) / Spam Protection)
5. Google Pay (UPI - India specific)
6. Gestures - Flip to Shh / Double Tap to open Camera / Twist twice in camera for Selfie mode.
and many more that I have missed.
Question wasn't about if google apps are better, but how pixels contribute to the growth of AOSP differently then vendors like samsung.
Just because google sponsor AOSP, doesn't mean that any proprietary app they make (which is all of them btw) count as AOSP contribution. AOSP and Pixel are 2 separete things.