[GauntletWizard]

Binding things to the Play API has been an unfortunate compromise for Android; their product partners have not been forthcoming on continued device support, so google has had to bundle more and more as an updatable package rather than as part of the core OS. It's a shame that it's been this way, but in the prisoners dilemma of older device support, LG/Samsung/Etc have chosen to rat many, many times, and Google had to do something.

[myko]

It would be nice if the bits of Play Services that could be open sourced were open sourced.

[GauntletWizard]

Bits like this can be and are open sourced; they're just not as usable open sourced, because obviously they're yet another library to grab and install. All the code you need to interface with it seems to exist on github, though not in nearly as pretty a package.

[gress]

They could all be open sourced. Google chooses not to open source them in order to control the platform and develop leverage over their partners.