I've had more than my share of Android devices, going all the way back to the G1. It's always been trivial to bypass the Google account login, should you want to (I even did that for a while on a spare phone that I was lazy about sending back for warranty service). As another commenter notes, getting third-party apps may be more complicated, but there are several options (Amazon, AndroidPIT, GetJar and other stores, including regional/local ones.