Comment by timschmidt

Son, I've been building and installing custom roms since the HTC Dream, was involved in OpenMoko, and have owned nearly every open or Linux-running phone of the last 30 years back to the Sharp Zaurus and iPaqs.

Your custom rom experience sits wholly within a larger category of computer systems experience about which I've been speaking.

The sort of fragmentation you describe is a symptom, not a foregone conclusion.