The Importance of Right-Left-Up-Down Standards in Product Design

This is spot on, and it's something I didn't even notice yet just always had a slightly uneasy feeling about since I've been using ICS on the Galaxy Nexus.

Another one that I did notice is after going one or more levels deep in folders in your bookmarks requires you to tap the breadcrumbs to go back up a level, and not the back button, since that takes you back to the main browser view. But the breadcrumbs are too long for a portait-mode screen, so you can never actually read more than the first letters of the first folder! So I end up hitting the back button almost every time, and cursing about it.

This is precisely the kind of thing that Apple excels at. It's what makes John Q. and Jane B. Public think Apple products are "magical." It's the kind of thing Normals don't think about. If they buy solely on price ("this robot thing is a smart phone, too, and it's cheaper") they tend to get a subpar experience.

If the more open ecosystems can agree on some kind of continuity, user experiences will improve. But by being more open, they necessarily allow developers to impart their own ideas completely out of step with others in the community or even apart from the platform.

Also, I've never paid any attention to the cut/copy/paste icons on any platform before. I've always use keyboard shortcuts. So I'm never sure if I'm hitting the right one.

Not sure why you're surprised. The UX on Android is dreadful and is reminiscent of the bad days of Linux on the desktop. I still get very confused when the hardware back button does and doesn't apply.

The problem is that Google was really late in putting out UI Guidelines similar to what Apple and Motorola do. They only really come out around Honeycomb meaning there are lots of apps that had no guidance.