Comment by on_and_off

More of a potential problem than an existing one but I know potential issues have shapped how fonts are delivered on Android :

A recent version of the OS + support lib added the possibility to reference a font in your app in order to have it downloaded (if necessary) and applied to your views.

IIRC It is restricted to one font delivery system only allowing fonts available on Google fonts. Not because of a power grab, but because fonts are not just graphics but also run a bunch of code.

So unrestricted access would have been a big security hole.

If you want more details, the font team talked about it at length during an Android Developer Backstage podcast episode.