Google has always allowed early access to privileged hardware partners. They may be changing the terms of that early access, but the access itself is not new. You can argue about whether Android is "open" or not, but either way it's still about as "open" as it's always been.

- Android 1.0 source was not published until one day before it shipped on the HTC T-Mobile G1

- Android 2.0 source was not published until one week after it shipped on the Motorola Verizon Droid.

- Android 3.0 source will not be published until some unknown date after it shipped on the Motorola XOOM.

Not even other hardware partners have access to the source during these early access periods. (I know, because I was working on an Android customization project for carriers and manufacturers at the time of the 2.0 release.)