Google manages to make it weird for both the users and the devs :). You never know what an android update will remove (call recording, access to file system, etc) as a user, and devs always have to worry about minimum API support.
I didn't know iOS had a similar problem on the dev side, so I guess there's really no easy way out for mobile devs haha.
True, I'm definitely not saying Android is any better. And yes, aside from the fact that there's obviously a lot of value to be had, I have grown to simply hate mobile development for that very reason. Every vendor will make whatever change they want to at whatever point they feel like it and it's not like a desktop platform, where you usually can work around it, it sometimes simply destroys your whole business use case or selling point if you're unlucky. (At times even to just be re-introduced later as part of the OS, which is simply stealing from and destroying smaller competitors without repercussions)
I didn't know iOS had a similar problem on the dev side, so I guess there's really no easy way out for mobile devs haha.