I think you're convoluting my question into something I did not ask.
You did not ask an simple question, you wrote an essay about your dissatisfaction with the current situation so it is to be expected, that there will be no simple answer.
Your post read very unhappy, so an simple "There is no solution to your problem, bad luck" felt inappropriate to me. It seemed that you were not just seeking for an simple answer, you were angry about the current situation and i wanted to help you understand in hope, this would have taken away parts of that anger.
Often understanding why things are the way they are helps people to accept it the way it is.
The issue is simple - I have a powerful Android device in my pocket already called a smartphone.
You already have an powerfull device called an smartphone. What OS it runs is unimportant. Your situation wouldn't be different if you would own an iPhone with iOS, or would it?
To use it I have to take it out of my pocket, activate the screen and manipulate the screen to do what I want to do.
Absolutely true, that is how smartphones work.
To have a SECOND equally large device in another pocket that duplicates everything the phone does with the exception of the cellphone part
You are mixing things up. Your smarthone duplicates a lot of things other devices do.
Your smartphone is duplicating the DAP, the DAP is not duplicating the smartphone. DAPs existed before smartphones existed. I was not joking when i said, most people who used DAPs had Android on their DAP before they had Android on their Smartphone.
Your smartphone doesn't just duplicate an DAP, it also duplicates an camera, an navigation system, an gaming console, an computer and so on.
So should camera makers, computer makers, gaming console makers, navigiation system makers and DAP makers remove all features that are already there in an smartphone? Its not their fault that smartphone makers duplicate and copy these features.
There exist PCs who run Android and even support SIM Cards. You can do phone calls with your PC (i do that for example). So my PC is an almost 100% duplication of my smartphone. Should i now install MS-DOS on my PC because why have features there, that i already have on my smarpthone?
Beside that, an DAP also doesn't have a camera and doesn't support all apps from the app store, so even unrelated to the smartphone part, they are not duplicating a smartphone. But that is beside the point.
is ridiculously cumbersome and takes up another full pocket.
They would no matter what operating system they run. That is what i wanted to explain to you. If they would run an non Android OS, they would still take up another full pocket. That is the fate of an DAP. They do this since they exist! DAPs in the past even sometimes where bigger than mobile phones!
Add to that I need to take it out of my pocket, activate the screen and do what I need to do which is basically just listen to music, playlists or whatever and reach in, touch the right button WHILE STILL IN MY POCKET and move on.
So you're complaining about Touchscreens? The ZX100, ZX300 and WM1 all didn't run Android and still they all had Touchscreens. DAPs had Touchscreens long before Android even existed.
I'll grant you that some current DAPs have buttons you can access without needing to take the DAP out of your pocket and activate the touchscreen.
I don't know one DAP that doesn't have buttons. I checked like 20 DAPs from all the makers i know and all of them have all important physical buttons so you don't have to use the touchscreen. Even all current FiiO DAPs do have that.
So I have to duplicate a device that does what another device already does with the exception of HD music. Or I have to duplicate a device that does what another device already does with the exception of cellphone service. Why do I need to commit to carrying TWO almost identical devices with the same capabilities to have a phone and DAP?
You have to ask that the Smartphone makers. They are duplicating all the features of other devices. Its not the fault of Sony that other companies duplicated features in their DAPs.
I don't go to the store in my car only to tow a truck behind it in the off chance I might go to Home Depot. I don't wear one watch that tells the time only AND wear, on my other wrist, a chronograph so I can time things with the stopwatch. I just wear the chronograph.
That is true. But people use Notebooks, Cameras, Gaming Consoles and Cars, even though they are all duplicating a smartphone. Most modern cars run Android, you can read your emails with gmail on them and use Google Maps. A lot of modern cameras use Android and so on.
The Nintendo Switch even uses an Smartphone SoC(!) and runs FreeBSD. If Nintendo would allow it, it could run Android with all Apps, the Switch is basically a large smartphone with physical controls.
Would you be satisfied if Sony would disable all Android features? Why does it annoy you so much that you have these features, you don't have to use any of them. You don't even need an Google Account. You can just click Skip on the Setup phase and the Smartphone uses no Android Features whatsoever.
Why is the potential in being capable to use them if you would want to such an issue?
But better question, why do you even use an DAP at all? Smartphones duplicated DAPs, why don't you just use your smartphone to play music?
Sonys current portable gaming console, the Xperia Stream, is actually only an hardware addon for their Xperia Smartphones.
Just like that an Dongle can turn your Smartphone into an High End Audio Player. Or an portable (blueooth) amp. Your smartphone can do everything a DAP can do with an Hardware Addon.
If you use an BTR7, you don't even have to use an cable. The BTR7 supports LDAC and is as large as an lighter. So you just have to plug your earphone or headphones into an ligher sized device and place that wherever you want (you never have to touch it). Problem solved.
Or the other way around. Some people, and this is not a joke, put their SIM Card into an pocket wifi and use their DAP for everything. Why have an smartphone in the first place?
I thought about that myself. Modern DAPs are so powerful, why have a smarpthone anyway? Why not replace the smartphone with the DAP?
If the underlying OS is Android, that's fine. But all I need is a screen to sometimes see what I'm playing, some transport buttons, volume buttons and a menu of some sort. Not full-on Android with all the other stuff that's already on my phone. Don't need or want two almost identical devices.
But no DAP maker will worsen their device due to your principles. There are a lot of advantages in having Android on a DAP so your lamenting will be unheard by the DAP makers.
There is no solution to your problem, we can help you understand the issue better in hope that you can accept it or give you alternatives, but non of use will take a soldering iron and make an Androidless DAP for you so your "question" is not pointing anywhere. Talk to the CEO of FiiO, not to us.
You do not have to touch any of the Android parts of any Andriod DAP. If you get an current walkman, you can just skip the Android setup on startup, start the walkman app and you will never see anything of Android.
The OS and the Walkman app have their own update service from Sony, other DAPs have the update service of their DAP maker, and you're done. As long you never reboot it, you will never notice it runs Android. So there is really not that much to complain about it if you don't want to use it.
The potential of having the features if you would want to use them is not reason enough for DAP makers to remove them.
Would you complain about an car having more than 60hp because you don't need it due to speed limits?
