It was my understanding the XML was compiled into a binary format for faster parsing on device, am I wrong on that?
EDIT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_application_package "resources.arsc: a file containing precompiled resources, such as binary XML for example." Ah yes, I think it does.
> Most of all, it allows no code reuse.
If we are talking code reuse in terms of having one common bit of layout that is used across several different layouts, actually you can: http://developer.android.com/training/improving-layouts/reus...
Also, the Android view system as it stands is incredible flexible.
You can provide different layouts and style rules for different screensizes and device configs - an kinda equivalent to the webs responsive design using CSS media queries.
Also, every view component is just a Java class. As well as allowing you to create your own class from scratch that you can just use as part of a view, you can also extend an existing view class and just change one bit of it's behaviour.
I don't especially mean to have a go at Anko - sorry. It's just that I think the Android views are actually pretty good, and certainly when I'm working on Android apps this isn't one of the major problems I have!