That's a good point, I didn't really consider Xiaomi being Android based. If Google did go through with this, they could do the same thing Huawei did too, and just fork. I really wish I could get Chinese phones in Canada, maybe now that the relations with the US are souring, there might be a possibility.

I do think everything comes down to the ecosystem in the end, and that's what ends up being the lock in mechanism. If you live in a country using a western software stack, and you need to communicate with other people, it becomes really difficult using any platform that doesn't support popular apps everybody uses.

One of the worst developments in the tech space was proprietary protocols becoming the norm with stuff like Slack WhatsApp, and Discord. Now huge chunks of the public are locked into that because all their friends are on those platforms.