> It seems to be unreasonably difficult at the moment to create a simple 2d game that is cross platform and mobile friendly without using Flash.

It really is. The only options you've really got (unless you want to use somebody else's engine in its entirety) are C++ or C# with Mono (OpenTK on OS X, Linux, iOS, and Android; OpenTK or DirectX on Windows).

If this targeted iOS, I would be all over it. (I know there's a port in progress--I look forward to it!) As it is, however, I don't find it terribly useful; if I want to write for Android (I really don't care about the platform) I'd use libgdx.

Why you would use libgdx and not andengine (for example)?

Because an Android-dedicated framework is of no use to me.

Android will not, in the near future, be a platform I care about supporting more than casually. Game sales tend to be questionable on Android phones and almost nonexistent on Android tablets; the same can't be said about iOS. And while I own Android devices, they gather dust because of my general distaste for the platform's design decisions and goals; while I do not begrudge Android users their decisions, it's become clear to me that, personally, it's very hard to develop for a platform that makes me (literally-literally) sad and unhappy to use.

My primary platform of interest, however, remains OS X and Windows, and I'll consider Linux if I can get it for an expenditure of nearly zero effort. If I for some reason decided that I needed to target only and solely Android for mobile devices, libgdx lets me trivially write code for the platforms I actually care about at the same time.

(But I'm more likely to use C++, where I can target iOS, or MonoTouch/MonoDroid, where I can target both iOS and WP7, instead.)