I think he is saying that android was in such a weak position compared to IOS at the outset that google could not bargain with carriers to give them any sort of control.

They sold carriers on this platform that they could customize and manipulate(i.e revenue generating crapware and custom features) and deploy on a very diverse set of hardware. But the trade-off is that any software updates are blocked by massive cooperation by the carriers and OEMs.

This is all in contrast to IOS which is often touted as having near instant uptake of upgrades, and only needs to support about a dozen devices.