The trouble is this seems to me like a short term fix, longer term, once the models are much better, Google can just lock out apple and take everything for themselves and leave Apple nowhere and even further behind.

Of course there is going to be an abstraction layer - this is like Software Engineering 101.

Google really could care less about Android being good. It is a client for Google search and Google services - just like the iPhone is a client for Google search and apps.