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.
Android is actually much much better than iOS. For some older unmaintained apps I've dug out the APKs and most of them run without major issues, though a scary warning saying it's designed for older versions of Android.
- Unless you don't want Google to know your location constantly, no matter what setting you use for the GPS chip.
- Unless you want security updates past a year.
That's not been the status quo any more for a while since the EU started to mandate several years of OS and security updates. Samsung and I believe Google as well have stated they'll do 7 years of udates.
> 1 Availability and timing of Android OS upgrades and security updates may vary by market, network provider and/or model.
note that it says "up to 7 years" and may vary by market. and has only been in effect for 15 months so there isnt a track record to say it will actually happen.