Verizon has long been a bastard with regard to releasing updates. However, travel takes me where they are the only thing that works (other than a local carrier that makes no sense back at home). They also tend to have better coverage here at home.
BUT, they told me that one of the selling points of this model on Verizon was that they were committing to releasing updates in a timely manner.
My fault for believing Verizon. But... Google's fault for not pressuring them. iPhones on Verizon get updates. This becomes "simple math", for the user on Verizon. And, Verizon has a lot of users, here in the U.S.
P.S. Even if Google is not in a position to effectively do anything about this, they should recognize the pressure this applies to users to switch platforms. Something I would imagine they ARE interested in.