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They are unfortunately correct. Its the same sort of argument that got Microsoft. If they don't allow competition from the start its fine if they do and work to undermine that competition then its by definition anti competitive and monopolistic. Crazy I know.
But what exactly did they do though? Several OEMs have their own app stores (Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo etc) and they're not restricted in any way, nor is the Play Store promoted over their native app stores on those devices. Finally, you're free to download any app store (F-Droid, Aurora, Apptoide) etc on pretty much every Android phone. So what exactly is anti-competitive here?
Google actually forces it's installation if you want to use the android trademark. It'd probably be pretty hard to market "MotorolaOS"
I don't see the issue here. Is it really that bad to bundle your own apps in your own OS? Also, even though they bundle the store, it's not like they're forcing you to use it, nor is it prominently promoted over any other native stores.
I think the issue could be that it's forcing the companies to include it, even if the company can include alternatives as well or when user can just ignore it. Not a lawyer, but back when Apple was in the courts I heard social media lawyers saying that Google actually had a worse prospect because when you force your competitors (other non-google phone makers that use Android forks) to bundle G Play/Services it can be considered "tying". Then if a company just uses the GPL code without following the contractual rules like that they can't advertise Android and it it could hurt their market share.
Just spitballing, but maybe the Google play services that lots of apps require to run? So even if you have a third party store you likely still need those services that also lump in a bunch of other stuff for Google's benefit.
You don't need to use the Google Play Services at all. Developers only use it because it's convenient, but you're not forced to use it. A lot of users here on Lemmy for example (myself included) use alt stores like F-Droid, Droid-ify etc without any issues.
Without FCM, push notifications become much harder due to the battery saving optimizations each device manufacturer uses. So not a need per se, but it makes your life MUCH harder
There are alternatives. Pushy is pretty easy to use, and it's not that hard to allow it to run in the background. See: https://support.pushy.me/hc/en-us/articles/360043423332-How-can-I-send-notifications-to-Android-devices-in-Doze-power-saving-mode-
Of course, an OEM may do aggressive app killing where the above may not work (Huawei is notorious for this), but that is an OEM-specific issue that applies to all apps in general, so as a developer it's up to you whether you want to test against, or even support such OEMs.