Plank Bender
In a commercial world the Garmin approach is not a surprise. I read into it that they are watching what happens here in Australia as a determinant to manufacture of 1090ES ADS-B IN.
The reason is surely that if the USA goes to the other ADS-B (UAT) then Garmin will make UAT ADS-B IN a higher priority as the airlines will use far more sophisticated equipment and the 1090ES ADS-B IN market will be small.
Flying Binghi
I have followed the UAV progress and I believe GPS is useful to UAV but not necessarily necessary to mission completion.
On another related technical topic, I find the debate on WAAS of interest, particularly the arguments to use a Japanese satellite. I think the argumant you are putting forward is probably counter to WAAS also.
(I think I will soon need a dictionary of aviation acronyms.)