Panda said that Google will handle the updates to the GNex, directly; and that this was a "must have" term in the negotiations between Google and VZW.
this leads to my question (and i don't know the answer): would a locked BL prevent Google from issuing updates directly? in other words, if the BL was locked, would the updates HAVE to come from VZW? it seems to me that they are probably separate issues, but i just don't know...
given the system app list that was released a while back, there wasn't any vzw bloat on it. to me, that signals a pure Nexus device, with an unlocked BL.