Awesome! Yep, definitely been there before too. Sometimes premature optimization gets you into more trouble: trying to set up something minimal when the conventional, more widely used approach "just works".
I will say you build more of an appreciation for how everything works when you have to struggle a bit. Especially networking. I was setting up a static IP the other day and took me more time than I care to admit to figure out it was a 0 instead of a 1 in my gateway. But I took some notes so next time I have to do that hopefully it'll go a bit smoother.
Anyone have any good readings or discussions on what Google Play policies are being cited here as the major obstacle? Just curious to learn more.
Edit: 20 testers policy? Sounds onerous.