That problem had to do with some apps (closed source) that were being distributed without permission, not with the OS. It really is mostly a legal/copyright issue. They were on the right (if you allow for the existence of closed source apps). The developer is now complying with the law and there is apparently a workaround way of obtaining those apps. And Google doesn't care much about that as long as their copyright is respected. Google has to defend its copyright otherwise it risks loosing it.

Any way, I keep thinking of how much I would have preferred to get a Maemo device instead of the Archos 5, but I can't afford to spend that much money and I am not interested in an aging, about to be obsolete, underspeced, N810. However, I must admit that If the N900 played ogg out of the box and worked as a USB host, or better yet a standard SD card slot, I would have probably thrown all caution to the wind and sold something else to get it.