The analogy reminds me of Shrek. Ogres have layers, so they're like onions, which have layers, but not like cakes that have layers? I think the article would have been fine without that analogy, and just dove into the relationship and differences between the 'layers'.
While that's a nice thought, I don't think that ruling in favor of Oracle will magically make Android poof into a new language/api/framework. It'd take lots of effort, and in the meantime fall way behind Apple. I'm not even sure the cost of trying to keep up with the iPhone would be justified in that case.
Yeah, there's going to be these trade-offs (complexity/efficiency), but I've seen this end up in fellow student's personal projects after learning it in class.
Aside from that though, I think if you're clever enough to come to this and implement it well, I hope you're clever enough to understand whether or not it's the RightWay(TM).
If you're counting the Samsung, Google, AccuWeather, and ChatOn logo's, sure. Without those we're left with a still diverse set, but I think reasonably varied. If I could make one change it would be to make the clock font match (style-wise) the rest of the non-logo fonts, probably at a much lighter weight (ultralight serif).
He doesn't appear to back it well in the article other than as a quality of the plastic. Reviews are subjective, and as the next Google Flagship device, the S3 will be getting lots more reviews soon enough. Personally I like the Verge's Android phone reviews.
I'm happy with it. Coming from a SE Xperia X10, I was worried I made the wrong choice simply because of the One X's size. But the display is, to my aging eyes, fantastic. The camera is very quick to launch and the photos just fine for me.