I wish Google would focus on making regular Android more stable instead. Given the memory management issues I've had on my Nexus 5 and other devices since Lollipop, there's no way I'd choose to inflict Android on a low-memory IoT device...
Irrelevant but flush your biases and assumptions down to the toilet. Java can statically compile to microcontroller architectures with minimal runtime footprint. Stop blaming the languages, blame the runtime implementations.
In my perfect world, the whole Android team spends the next three months doing a bug bash and releasing an Android 6 where I reliably get Hangouts messages and don't have to reboot 2-3 times a week. If some of the Android team is working on stripping down the OS for IoT devices, less time is being spent on that hypothetical bug bash.
Of course this is all moot because fixing bugs doesn't seem to be a priority for them regardless; adding stickers is far more important. :)
I'd love it if Google took more control off the carriers, and took responsibility into their own hands. If Apple can roll out updates in a couple of days, Google should be able to do much better than they have been doing.
This is why carriers are highly resistant to allowing Google to manage the software on phones. This is why Nexus handsets are mostly sold direct. This is why Google was tempted into exploring being an MVNO.