Unfortunately I think Android is trying to follow in Apples footsteps. Anecdotally, after they upgraded the Market to Play (quite a few WTF experiences when that happened), they now ask for a lot more information (e.g. address) when updating credit card information. Also they made an unforgivable mistake for me in that the credit card entry on 4.0.3 was buggy - so I gave up and have stopped buying apps - I really have trouble trusting companies that make it hard for me to give them my money.

At least with Apple one can still get an iTunes card to purchase apps, without registering ones credit card. Especially important since an iPad sends your appleid in cleartext HTTP headers when connecting to the internet...