This headline is absolutely atrocious. It makes it sound like Android Lollipop itself was still being supported, but that support ended around 7 years ago.
It should be "Google Play services updates for Android Lollipop end"
less than one percent of active devices are running it.
Are there any other sources for this number? 'Cos most devices i deal with are in the jelly bean - lollipop range.
Even if, a company such as Google could perfectly well keep maintaining older devices, but then they wouldn't be able to sell Pixels and boast how eco-friendly they are.
I'm sorry, what? Setting min SDK is, itself, a patch. I'm sure Google could backport that patch if they so desired. It's not Spectre, it's a software vulnerability.
There's no technical reason not to provide security backports to software. This is intentional.
Also known as Android 5.0, it was widely popular for introducing Material You to Android devices.
This is incorrect - Android 5 came with Material Design, of which Material You is an evolution (arguably it could also be called Material Design 3). Material You did not exist back then.