Anyone want to explain Android Auto to me?

[WelshBloke]

Dashboard mounts are ugly and possibly damage the vehicle.

There's a fairly massive selection of mounts, pick one that isn't fugly or damages your vehicle.
Plus you need a mount for your phone even with AA.

You still have the problem of a smaller, harder to read display.

There's a variety of sized android phones/phablets, and they all have better screens than the craptastic ones that the AA head units have shown so far.
Plus having the screen low down on the centre console is terrible to look at when driving.