Android was already a platform on life support. Google has wielded its authority to dictate how apps should behave such that even 3rd party stores do not stray far from Google's rules. Users of android phones have little hope to run a program from 5 years ago, or to roll back a bad update in an era full of bad updates.
What do you mean by this? I have had changes upstreamed into AOSP and I'm not a Google employee.
>Its massive codebase that requires immense resources to build is not open for negotiation
So is every other operating systems. Do you think the millions of lines of codes for Windows builds instantly? You can get by building AOSP on a normal desktop workstation.