I don't find that surprising. When I was playing with CyanogenMod it became obvious to me that RIL reads/writes files from EFS partition on behalf of the modem because settings for the modem, like IMEI, state of network lock, preferred networks etc, are stored there. I am not sure whether the interface is general enough so the modem can ask for any file.
If they are concerned about binary blobs doing unknown stuff, RIL is small potatoes. There is huge GPS daemon binary made by 3rd party. Sensor drivers are linked with closed source processing libraries (AKM/akmd). Camera loads whole bunch of image/video processing libraries which are closed source/3rd party too. Lots of phones also use closed source 3rd party audio processing libraries. Not to mention 16MB of compressed modem firmware, running on modem CPU which is like another little independent computer.

Here you go VNC viewer for Chrome https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/vnc-viewer-for-google-chr/iabmpiboiopbgfabjmgeedhcmjenhbla?hl=en
Chrome Remote Desktop https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chrome-remote-desktop/gbchcmhmhahfdphkhkmpfmihenigjmpp?hl=en

And there is bunch of RDP viewers too.

Visit Google and look at the parking lot, Prius. Leaf and Tesla driving crowd there mostly. And some exotics sprinkled here and there. I would say than on average Google folks seem to care about environment and society more than employees at other companies I have seen.

At least I could use it with my NedoPC ZX Evo. http://nedopc.com/zxevo/zxevo.php
Which is pretty cool, Mini-ITX format ZX Spectrum compatible motherboard ;-)

But they built their own app store. Microsoft is free to do it as well. Yandex just released kit for using their services and app store too http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/19/yandex-kit/ , so if Yandex can do it, so can Microsoft.
Now, if they want access to Google Play Store they will probably have to go through the same process as any other Android phone vendor and sign and agreement and go through testing and certification. Virgin developers or not, if you want to access Play Store you need an agreement.

CyanogenMod does not come with Play Store or Google apps (they stopped distributing them few years ago in September 2009 http://androidandme.com/2009/09/news/cyanogenmod-in-trouble/). If you want them you have to download and flash them separately. The only exception is Oppo N1 CyanogenMod Edition which applied and received the certification so it can include Play store. Most white box Chinese Android tablets did not include Play store either or if they did they used "borrowed" device IDs and pretended to be something else. This is slowly changing and some of them do apply and receive the certification and official Play store and Google Apps. It is probably not that expensive if they can afford it.
The certification was always a requirement, it seems quite logical that it requires payments since it requires some testing and work by Google engineers and developing all this software and infrastructure wasn't free either.

You have mistaken Nexus 5 for Moto X
http://www.ibtimes.com/why-nexus-5-lacks-touchless-control-moto-x-always-listening-voice-gestures-1487038

Here is how to set it up on Moto X https://motorola-global-portal.custhelp.com/app/answers/prod_answer_detail/a_id/94881/p/30,6720,8696/action/auth

Well, x32 cannot completely replace x86_64. Because I did not put 32GB RAM in my workstation to run everything with only 4GB of user address space.
And Firefox and Chrome can run out of 32 bit address space pretty quickly.
So x32 is an useless gimmick. Maybe useful on low memory system like embedded Linux with 2 or 4GB of RAM.

And I don't want another set of libraries in my system in addition to 64 bit and 32 bit emulation.

I am a happy user of Permissions as well. And while I like it as a hack, I use it with full understanding of consequences of disabling random permissions in Android apps.

I also understand Google's position. This feature has capability of breaking apps in various ways. It makes it much harder for app developers to test and deploy the apps.

If the app requires some permission and it gets disabled, suddenly some OS calls will fail and the app will usually not be able to handle it. In best cases it may not matter, in a lot of cases it will cause crashes, in worst cases it will cause user data corruption.

For feature like this to be fully supported whole Android permission model would have to be upgraded with 3rd state, in addition to permitted and denied states for each permission it would have to add "optional/user" state and app developers would have to test with that setting on and off. This would also explode number of test cases so I don't expect any developer going for it. So disabling permissions will always be a hack and a testing/developer tool.

Since most people get their knowledge of the world from Hollywood movies which have portrayed pervasive government surveillance for many many years the reality is not much of a surprise for them. Most people are actually expecting it to be much more advanced. For reference see movies like Enemy of The State http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120660/
I suspect people are more surprised by the fact that you cannot infinitely zoom-in digital photographs like in CSI or easily track people with satellite based cameras in realtime. It is also interesting how these movies and CSI TV shows affect reality, for instance http://www.npr.org/2011/02/06/133497696/is-the-csi-effect-influencing-courtrooms

Pretty much most iterative simulation systems like weather simulation will behave this way. When the result of one step of the simulation is the input for another step any rounding error will possibly get amplified.
Also see Butterfly Effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_effect (not the movie!).

Thats easy, just click on this llittle Java app.

That the computers parse your email and use the information for both ads and better services. Its not only for ads, although generally targeted ads are better in my opinion.
If you tried Google Now on Android it will give you notifications about stuff the servers parsed from your email, like flight notifications for the flight booking notifications you received in your email etc.
Recently I have given up on my illusion of "privacy" (running ADBlock, Ghostery and WOT I am still pretty sure I am being tracked by ad networks). So I decided to stop fighting the battle I have lost long time ago. I have uploaded my whole email archive to GMail so Google can index it and start being my electronic nanny. And it is by far the best electronic nanny there is.

And I am pretty sure that both Yahoo and Microsoft are doing targeted ads based on email content, and Yahoo used to append their ads to emails.

And if you don't want your emails to be ready by anyone but the intended recipient and NSA, there is a tool called PGP.

E-ink display manufacturers are closing their factories already
And such a shame.
Maybe a tablet with e-ink display on the back could be a good idea, like the recent Russian phone.