The Nexus comes with some HP printer crapware that can't be removed without rooting (My Nexus 5 did at least)

I was confused by that, too. But it's hardly on the level of Windows PCs.

I find it far more frustrating on Android, though, as with Windows I get root so I can remove them.

Another benefit of the Nexus program is that it's trivial to achieve root, so you can easily get to the point of removing even the small amount of bundled crapware.

I got my Nexus 5 from tmobile and it had nothing of the sort.

I got mine directly from the google play store (UK)