I would have thought this experience to be anachronistic as well as I thought Android had plenty of time to polish their experience since those stories 2-3 year

I would have thought this experience to be anachronistic as well as I thought Android had plenty of time to polish their experience since those stories 2-3 years ago. That's part of the reason I jumped into trying Android. I thought it would be a good experience - just different from iOS, which I welcomed. As for doing good UX for apps on Android, i think that's almost no different than doing good UX for apps on any smartphone platform. Aside from dealing with the back button and a few other platform specific issues, it's the same set of challenges around touch-based devices and limited screen real estate.