> Chrome OS is a glorified browser with a linux kernel.
No, it's a full OS with "an actual app ecosystem, broad vendor support, etc" as you claim for Android. Dell, Toshiba, Acer, Asus and Lenovo make Chromebooks.
> Android...ships with Chrome. So anything that can run on Chrome OS can be quite
> trivially supported on Android as well.
No, because they would have to port the API and find a way to get extensions to fit into the UI. Chrome on Android is a very inferior product from a user perspective. Android laptops exist, and they don't sell well.
> Which is why Chrome OS never made sense from the very day it launched.
It made sense then and even more so now, with more support and management capabilities.
> ...you can get a similarly priced laptop that is not crippled.
No, because a $200 Windows laptop cannot be relied on to anything that you couldn't do better on a Chromebook.
> This is why Google's latest hybrid laptop and tablet, pixel c, already ships with android.
I doubt it. You can already get Android laptops, but very few actually do.