That’s the surface-level version, yeah.

But it’s not “just some ID.” It’s the start of identity gating by default for app distribution on certified Android devices—ala Apple. That changes who can publish, how apps get distributed, and what kinds of tools are even allowed to exist.

Obtainium isn’t “dying.” It’s being pushed out of the Play-services-backed distribution path on certified Android devices. It still works on non-certified OSes like GrapheneOS running on the same hardware. That’s the point—it’s a clear, concrete example of the shift from permissionless sideloading to attested, identity-linked distribution.

The Pixel driver thing is a separate issue. With Android 16, Google stopped publishing the full Pixel device trees and driver binaries in AOSP, which forces custom ROM devs to reverse-engineer hardware support or rely on old binaries. That’s hostile and annoying, but it’s ultimately a hardware choice problem—projects can move off Pixels or work around it.

This one isn’t. This one changes the model.