With all this hassle to get a stupid update even having to root, bootload, unlocked having to erase everything or not crap I will just have to wait forever for Google to push the OTA update. The one thing I missed from switching from Apple was getting OTA the same day and even the ease of installing them from my PC. Now I have to hack this and root bootload that. I will just wait as long it takes.
Not sure if you know this, or not - but you can install the update, using the file, without having to root/unlock or erasing anything. If you have the patience to wait for the OTA to be sent to your phone, sure - that will work. If you don't, you can download the OTA update file, and install it using adb from your PC. Yes, it requires you to type in one command line statement, and needs you to have ADB installed on your computer, but it isn't brain surgery.
Apple release their OTA updates at exactly the same time for all models and generations of phones. It annoys me no end that Google can't seem to manage that, and that their communication about updates is so poor. It's just an unnecessary frustration.
From what I've heard from Google's engineers (I know somebody from their rollout planning team), the reason they don't release the updates to ALL nexus devices at the same time is to limit risk/potential for issues. Yes, they do test internally, but unlike iOS, Nexus users customize their phones, some, very heavily. All kinds of mods, sideloading apks etc. El Goog rolls it out initially to some devices, waits to see if there are bug reports that the device sends back to the mothership, and if no major issues are detected, they do the next rollout, and so on.
I agree though - they could do the staged rollout, and also provide eager users the ability to force the download to their devices. That would be the best of both worlds. They can rollout to the "rest of the Android users" at a controlled pace, and the few of us who wants the update "NOW" can request it. Who knows, maybe they will someday.