Google has a checklist of things that each OEM has to do in order to distribute the Google Apps, which are not open source. If the OEMs are in compliance with Google's terms for OEM distributors, I would say that it is an issue with Google's terms.
I am curious, I have a Samsung device and I note that I can't uninstall Gmail. Is that Google's choice or Samsung's choice?
honestly, i think the best choice would be to 'accept', and use the google services, or deny -- and just not get any google apps installed.
this would give privacy oriented people the option to simply opt out of anything google and still uphold the pretty good stock experience.
but this is imo still not google's task. OEMs choose to just flash google's services and apps by default right into their OS. that should only be done after the user said 'yes, i want to tell google everything i do'
I am curious, I have a Samsung device and I note that I can't uninstall Gmail. Is that Google's choice or Samsung's choice?