These are Ericsson people

The phone division has been more and more keen on open the further they moved away from Ericsson. The announcement around ASOPing Sony phones is a post-buyout move, and the decision to provide newer versions of Android for their 2011 phones was made after the buyout was mooted.

If anything, the evidence suggests Ericsson gave the mobiles the classic telco "fuck you, customer" culture that saw the 2010 Xperias launch with an outdated version of Android, grudgingly upgrade to 2.1, and refuse to provide anything beyond that.