Several other vendors build on that code, including some that don't ship Play Services. See
http://www.quirksmode.org/blog/archives/2015/02/counting_chr...Anecdata alert: On my main test phone, Play Services consumed more network/battery than anything else. (Admittedly, I never use that phone for games, phoning or really anything except testing a single app). So I deleted Play Services and its relations, so I could measure my own stuff better.
Battery lifetime improved greatly.
