I enjoyed reading this, I'm a graphics engine programmer by profession and I use GL3.3 on desktop and GLES2.0 on mobile, it's definitely better to learn a hardware accelerated rendering API than to use 2D software rendering for any game, it makes me happy to see someone else find this out too.
For your video problem if you're willing to go hard-core you might want to look up the ARB_pixel_buffer_object extension, these days it is a widely available extension for GL1.5+ devices, the idea is that you use a generic video decoder to decode to a buffer that is directly uploaded to a GL texture quickly, it is hard-core stuff though so there are not many tutorials, but if you're willing to invest the time it's worth investigating.
Good luck with everything!
xilefian
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