These days people are less keen on upgrading on every iteration than they used to be and are happier using older kit for longer. If they upped the maintenance window, in fact, that would force google to compete even more fiercely coz users would have to really really want the new features.
I, for one, would vastly prefer using this over the latest android even if it lagged a couple versions and cost a bit more.
They already did years ago. The PlayStore license prohibits manufacturers from providing Android based systems that do not come with Googles "services" preinstalled. Unsurprisingly this has been found illegal in many countries.
It was not about banning AOSP-based Google-less systems (like Amazon Fire, which hugely disproves your claim).
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160420/10225434223/eu-of...
>In particular, the EC has decided that Google:
has required manufacturers to pre-install the Google Search app and browser app (Chrome), as a condition for licensing Google’s app store (the Play Store);
made payments to certain large manufacturers and mobile network operators on condition that they exclusively pre-installed the Google Search app on their devices; and
has prevented manufacturers wishing to pre-install Google apps from selling even a single smart mobile device running on alternative versions of Android that were not approved by Google (so-called “Android forks”).
https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/18/google-gets-slapped-5bn-by...
The FireOS wiki page calls out how members of the Open Handset alliance (which includes almost all relevant manufacturers) are explicitly prohibited from using Android forks like it[1]. It exists in spite of Googles efforts to insert anti competitive language into any bit of legalese it gets its hands on. All its existence proofs is that Google sucks at being a knock of 90s Microsoft.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_OS#Amazon's_ecosystem
[0] https://www.kamilfranek.com/how-google-makes-money-from-andr...
I don't know anything about it other than their site, but it states that it was supported "in 2019" by PrototypeFund ("a project of the Open Knowledge Foundation Germany, funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research") and/but "since 2020" supported by E Foundation.
I much prefer the Japanese way: you get a massive fine AND you have to close shop for a certain amount of time. It's much more painful for a company not to work than to pay a fine.