I would give them the benefit of doubt that there are forces outside of the control of those who are really building these things. Frankly, kind of presumptuous to call them inferior engineers. Working on an OS, particularly one that has to out-perform ios and android isn't simple.
When you see the massive progress being made by say the Redox project (Rust based microkernel), it feels there has to be something internal which is preventing the project from advancing.
Redox is made by volunteers, not a trillion dollar company who decided to install their own OS onto their own hardware.
Point being is that making a micro kernel OS should be fully within their wheelhouse. If Google is not getting it done, there is some process or internal king maker which is preventing it from happening.