The way I read it, they’re not asked to follow an open standard, but to provide a specification for their own standard. That means that they could dictate the pace of development and others could decide for themselves wether or not to implement it for their devices. It’s similar to WhatsApp being forced to provide third parties with API access.
Also, they currently don’t support alternative protocols with cross-platform support and they’re not going to, unless forced.
The Dutch brought Sinterklaas (Saint Nicholas) to New Amsterdam, current day NYC, which has developed into Santa Claus as we know it know. Santa Claus is a phonetic derivation of Sinterklaas.
Apparently he was depicted as a thick-bellied Dutch sailor with a pipe and a green outfit in Washington Irving’s History of New York book, so maybe that’s where you got that idea from.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Claus