Apologies for not being clear - I meant iTunes' functionality (sync collections of media) not implementation. Presumably Google thought it would be a neat shortcut using MTP since others would then write the media sync functionality (eg Media Monkey, Double Twist).

It was a good short term choice, but a bad one for the long term. And there is nothing stopping them adding a TCP based sync later.

You'll note however that they prefer you sync to the cloud and then Google handles cloud to your device rather going direct from local machines to the device. See Google Music etc.

Thanks for the rant!