I agree with his points, but even so, surely Android is a good step toward more openness. Plus, isn't the G1 more open than many (most?) phones? I don't own one, but the impression I get is that it's fairly open.
The software is open (Android), but the hardware is not, or at least no more open than any other GSM phone with a SIM card. There is a big difference: consumer G1's still require Google/T-Mobile signed system images to boot up, meaning you can't reflash it with your own images, unless you want to risk bricking it by hacking the bootloader...
