That is really only an issue for low-level drivers and kernel level issues. There is nothing stopping OS vendors from fixing this without updating the drivers.

There is for Linux because it doesn't have a stable driver ABI. The drivers and the kernel are inseparable.

I never said otherwise. But the most critical android vulnerabilities are almost always fixable in userspace.

At the risk of sounding uninformed, does this mean the Year Of The ARM Desktop will have these same issues with updates and standardised hardware, or is it just a mobile SOC thing?

If you can force phone manifacturers to standrize chargers, same is possible for other issues.