After having worked in the bowels of Qualcomm's Android drops, I have to note that the amount of precompiled vendor binaries that get included was astounding. The worst part is that their tendrils hook in to major parts of the low level networking stacks in very bizarre ways. Removing them is often extremely difficult, and even simple things like removing APKs like this one often affect the stability of the system as a whole.
I can't really fault 1+ for this debacle -- but this is what happens when OEMs just go along with using these inscrutable blobs of crapware from their upstream vendors.
I only hope Librem can actually pull off their phone. Shipping something fully open in light of findings like this may help to turn the tide.