Much of the benefit of the GCM/XMPP bridge is that it is a two way communication channel that is managed by Android. Device goes down and comes back up? Messages will make it out and the app won't crash.

yes, but in a lot of countries delivering data to a 3rd party (which would be the fact here) is not allowed.

Last I checked the best Java/Android WebSocket client still needed lots of setup around it.

Yes, I understand - I also think this is worth to do. Having a solid aerogear-android-websocket repo/library would be benefit for the overall Android community, not just us