That's funny, when I bought my Nexus 4 I don't remember the front of the box saying, "Nexus 4: A shared branding between Google and LG." It said "Nexus 4" and had Google's logo displayed somewhere on there. I bought it from store.google.com, my credit card was charged by Google. It said "Google" on the box, so if I had an issue with it I would have expected Google to fix it. Anything less and they'd have been in the wrong.
I get what you're saying, I understand it. But from the consumer's point of view it just doesn't matter. The nature of the business relationship between Google and whomever should not be their concern. It rings of the same cop-out Amazon likes to make, that I'm not dealing with them, I'm dealing with a some third part merchant even though I visited Amazon.com, I paid Amazon, and the item is shipped to me by Amazon. They want to you deal with their suppliers.
I get what you're saying, I understand it. But from the consumer's point of view it just doesn't matter. The nature of the business relationship between Google and whomever should not be their concern. It rings of the same cop-out Amazon likes to make, that I'm not dealing with them, I'm dealing with a some third part merchant even though I visited Amazon.com, I paid Amazon, and the item is shipped to me by Amazon. They want to you deal with their suppliers.