The post is circa 2010, but his assessment still holds true today. Certain necessary methods & fields are protected, in order to prevent future incompatibilities that could result from changing the internals of AbsListView.
The best solution is still to copy the code for AbsListView into your project, along with necessary dependencies (the rabbit hole you mentioned).
In the meantime, if you want to describe what kind of View you’re trying to build, we might be able to point you in a direction that’s slightly easier than creating your own AbsListView?