I think that is pretty different than what is happening here because:
1. It doesn't require an entirely new app. You can ship the same apk on all platforms.
2. Most apps already don't have a hard dependency on play services.
Amazon and BlackBerry both tried the whole “you can upload your same APK to our AppStore approach”.
And well, when’s the last time you used the Amazon android AppStore?
an additional anecdote from my time then: they came to where i was working at the time and proposed funding a windows mobile version of our app (quite a large sum) but our supervisor finally said no, because the upkeep of now 3 apps would be too much for too few customers
you cant just throw money at devs and expect much unless you have the user base (potential market) to back it up