This is an edict from the design team, which engineering brainstorming cannot overcome. Furthermore, the majority of engineers cannot implement a solution even if they cared to try: they lack permission to access the development Android source repository.

Maybe it's different in other product areas, but from where I sit, the atmosphere you describe feels like a myth that Googlers tell each other, and not part of its culture today.

I no longer work at Google but for the nearly 7 years I was there while not every complaint got handled by a group of engineers like described in the article, a startling number of them were. It was still very much a part of the culture when I left and I would not be surprised to discover that it still was.