That says nothing of the lifespan of the device, my first gen iPad and iPod are still alive and kicking as good as day 1. Still play a fair majority of the apps on iOS. My android handhelds in the same generation are in the same boat. If being generations behind hardware wise means end of life then that says a lot about the Pandora as well because there's not only been 3 generations of Pandoras but the chipset is also several generations behind every other device out there. If the definition is end of official support and software updates (the only one I can sort of understand) then that is backing the Pandora deeper into its niche of having a official yet community provided firmware. Might as well say I like to the Pandora because no mainstream manufacturers rely on community provided firmwares. Not that none are available, but the support isn't official. I'm just saying some people are so twisted into the Pandora cult that the lies they are telling themselves (and try to convince others) are sometimes just absurd.
As all generalizations they are likely to fail at some point, but at least partially the argument is valid looking at two big players in the market you mentioned: Apple/iOS and Somemanfuacturer/Android:
Your older iPad/iPod/Android device may stil be alive and kicking, but support for it isn't. Now that's the point where it all depends on how you define wether something "breaks" or not. If you only relate it to a functioning hardware and limit it to the specific use case you had in mind when buying it (I like to run software y with version number x on it), then there is no flaw in your argument. But nowadays with the hardware getting less and less the deciding factor anymore, the software that runs it on it gains in importance in terms on "longlivety".
So looking at how many iOS or Android devices lack the support of their manufacturers nowadays, I think their lifespan is indeed relatively short - why else would alternative Android builds (cyanogenmod and such) have such a high popularity, just because people want more choice ? Not very probable. Or yourself, advocating for a newer Version of Android beeing available for the Pandora - Why ? Only because its newer, or because you would like the benefits the new version offers ?
Looking at the Pandora, after all these years its OS is still actively supported by its manufacturer, and not by the community alone- which gets an interesting spin as from the first thoughts about the Pandora on, the OP Team always said that they feel themselves only responsible for the hardware part.
And I'm not talking about providing some servers and this board, I'm talking about actively working on the system: While most part sure is Notaz, djwillis, skeezix, etc. work, Ed also contributed a lot, and is still doing: like working on a more streamlined settings dialog instead of an "endless" chain of zenity dialogs. Is this the same for your first generation iPod ?
The argument isn't about which is the best group to be apart of. Its that there's some weird f*Ker's in this group that opinions are so strongly in favor of this that their opinions are so loud and twisted outside of reality that it more than makes up for the lack of actual number of opinions. I've not once seen a "fan" of windows... Yes some like it, but I've never seen a windows fanboy like I do for Linux and even the Pandora. They both just attract extremists. Just read through some of those free software evangelic posts. That's all I'm saying. Come back to reality... Just a bit.
I'm sorry to say that, but that is just pure nonsense - there are always people that create a very strong emotional relation to something, and it sure isn't bound to some brand name. I have seen as many "fanboys" for windows as for linux bringing forth ridiculouse arguments. And I do not see many fanboys around here: look at the "Should I buy a Pandora" threads that the pop up every once in a while - I rarely see any "f*ck windows, f*ck capitalism everything must be open source" (or whatever you like to interpret as evangelism) posts, quite the contrary. I usually see people evaluating the specifics the original poster gives and try to give a recommendation (pro and contra Pandora).
