Keep dreaming. I think this is has been no end of frustration for Google project managers, who see the Android OS maimed and Frankensteined by manufacturers with their launchers,utilities, replacements for stock apps (Email, Gallery, Contacts, Calendar), and baked in BS bloatware that carriers demand in the contract in order to buy & resell a model.
I say "keep dreaming" because at the very, very least, carriers want their diagnostic software (e.g. CarrierIQ) installed to investigate QoS issues. And they want their proprietary dancing bologna like Visual Voicemail, My Account, etc. I don't think you'll ever see carriers saying, "Ok, never mind about our voice mail service, we'll just tell you how to set up Google Voice" or "You want account information? you'll have to install our apps first, we don't install that for you by default." I just don't see it happening.
And expecting Google to do the mad scientist laboratory work of making their phone work on CDMA and AT&T-LTE and VRZN-LTE and so on, is quite a fairy tale for me. That's the carriers' job to contract with Google to make a carrier-branded (read: compatible) phone for them. With HTC, Samsung, LG, Sony, Nokia, et al doing that, WHY would carriers bend over backward to work with Google and deliver a phone with less stuff on it, which most consumers (today) probably don't value.
This is the stalemate that the Nexus 4 on the Play store sabotages by selling direct to the customer. Making it so cheap (with corners cut and compromises made, naturally) is IMHO the real cherry bomb in the carriers' bathroom toilets. In this case, it's only the GSM carriers' game board they're overturning.