"When viewed in that frame, it's not so frustrating or confusing, or even an actual problem"

Androids main competition allows developers to reach a similar sized user base which targeting a tiny fraction of devices. When it comes time to decide which platform to support or which to support first the answer becomes moot.

If that is "not ... even an actual problem" under the frame of reference you're talking about... all that tells us is that that frame of reference is probably bad. Which sounds about right given that neither is desktop linux a great consumer success story nor are linux distro's held hostage by a third party.

Imagine if you had to wait for Time Warner's permission to update linux, oh I think that would be bad...