(author here). You're right that it takes more than a month to get a handle on tricks tools & quirks in a new language / buildsystem.

That said, if you drop me in a dumpster I can tell immediately that it's a hot day. The forum content around the android problems that I had show that the same problems have been cropping up for years with no improvement.

I don't doubt there are real reasons for the rigidity of android interfaces. Could be that the underlying system is written in C and doesn't interface easily with java. Could be limited staff and high legacy support requirements.