[nradov]

In principle there's nothing stopping Android device manufacturers from respecting privacy by using AOSP without Google services. However in practice such devices have either been market failures, or are even worse from a privacy standpoint (i.e. infested with Chinese government spyware).

[samat]

Until very lately there were secrect mandatory agreements with google which made device manufacturers unable to sell devices with and without googles software at the same time. You had to choose one.