Releasing Android One phones is at least a good move if you want to target the purist segment of the Android market. I have previously bought the Nexus phones and around christmas bought a Nokia 8 because HMD put a more or less stock version of Android on it. I much prefer stock Android to the touchwiz business Samsung is doing, at least as it was on my Samsung Galaxy S2 and S3.
It will be interesting to follow Nokia and HMD and I hope they succeed. There are too many phones with subpar custom UIs and menus + crapware that lags one or two major Android versions behind the latest release.