[Blasterlord2]

You are incorrect -

a. One doesn't need further "interpretation" since US gov law is explicitly bans US tech coy from working with Huawei.
Is strange for u to consider that as "irrelevant".

b. No one is arguing that developing a new OS is a  "humongous" challenge. What you are ignoring is if both Android and HarmonyOS are "not distinctly different", why is the later able to run on other smart devices while Android cannot ?

The point of the argument is not whether HW is banned from using some Android services, it's whether it is using a flavour of Android. Hence it is irrelevant to me since I'm not interested in that aspect.

You are dead wrong. Android has been WIDELY used in many aspects of smart devices.