Nearly every platform has a C compiler. Many embedded platforms have almost no language alternatives. No way Zig ( or Rust, or Go ) is ever going to target them all.

It opens up the language to embedded use cases like with PICs or other esoteric targets which don't fit the flat memory models assumed by modern languages including LLVM backends. When your memory model requires banking or any other form of non-linear or non-paged access, you're often in the proprietary C compiler with language extensions territory.

because there are C compilers available for everything out there.

What’s the story for running Zig on Android right now? Translating to C would have been my first guess.

(I see you have a call for Android devs to help make it better! But I’m wondering if there’s some awkward hacky way to use it right now)

i would say for using Zig with Arduino (it's possible llvm will ship AVR support in the future) and other microcontrollers.