It’s the core, yes, but as well as everything else they touch Google has been gradually making more of AOSP private. Android, in the format Google ships it, has a lot more bells and whistles than barebones AOSP, which is basically whatever Google lets everyone play with. But there are other FOSS alts
As long as you aren’t coping the source code directly it’s generally ok.
Having an OSS version of existing closed source software is a thing.
Examples are Gimp and Photoshop, Libre/Open office and Microsoft Office.
AOSP and Android, or LimeageOS and Android, or - okay there are a dozen different non-Google OSs
Isnt aosp literally android?
It’s the core, yes, but as well as everything else they touch Google has been gradually making more of AOSP private. Android, in the format Google ships it, has a lot more bells and whistles than barebones AOSP, which is basically whatever Google lets everyone play with. But there are other FOSS alts