To be honest, if my password is a 30 character one that takes me several minutes to pull up on my computer's password safe and type in using a phone's keyboard, it doesn't take very often for that password to be dumbed down to something more convenient.
The problem is that password is not protecting the phone, but the account, accessible from anywhere. Dumbing down the password is a bad solution. I'd be equally happy with a middle ground, like a PIN code to purchase as opposed to the full password. Which, incidentally, is exactly how people would avoid someone picking up their phone and "prank buying" in the first place (current security drama with regards to the lock screen notwithstanding).
Having said that, my Android phone has not asked me for my password since I bought it, and I am not bankrupt yet, nor can I remember seeing articles about people having issues.