I was more thinking along the lines of making a web app instead of a native app; IMO Google's implication is that, if you're not doing business in one of the supported countries, you're not allowed to conduct commercial transactions through your app. I'm guessing that this is more a legal issue than anything else (not to mention the developer getting around the kickback Google should be getting); I can imagine it sucking for Google to have accounts frozen because some auditor found out that Google was indirectly doing business in an unauthorized country. There could be tax issues, compliance issues, issues with trade agreements -- there are a TON of things to think about.
Each one of those ton of things have been solved by Apple, Samsung and BlackBerry in many of the countries Google doesn't support. They can copy what any one of these 3 did if they really wanted to help developers.
Can they? What if the process is patented?
Obviously PayPal, which is way smaller than Google, was able to pay to this developer.
You can't patent "compliance with the law", and you can't pass a law that requires licensing of a patent to be in compliance. So no, the "process" of being legally allowed to sell items in a country is not and cannot be patented.
By 3 different corporations?
licensing.
Then they can do the same thing. It's a non-argument, my favorite of the HN tropes.