If you're talking about the standardization "issue", maybe Google realized that what it wants is not for Android to turn into another highly fragmented ecosystem of "distros" (like in the Linux world), that have little in common with each other except the kernel, and even file extensions aren't the same. Google is positioning Android as an ecosystem that can compete against iOS and Windows - a (more or less) unified ecosystem. The more unified it is, the better it is for consumers, in general.

But I think a middle ground can be created between super open/fragmented/anyone can fork and do whatever they want with it and super-closed/nobody can do anything with it except its vendor. However, Google could probably achieve the same thing, if they treated Android, like they do with Chromium and Chrome. Keep Chrome/some version of Android for themselves - while keeping Chromium/AOSP as open as possible.

As for this rooting issue, I don't really see what it has to do with being "open". They're just trying to secure it. And as I said, they can still allow bootloaders to be unlocked by the user. It's up to companies to do so, or they can take Samsung's route and try to lock them down as much as possible, even at the region level (which I disagree with, because in this case, there's zero benefit for both consumers and hackers. The benefit is only for the company).