Live Tiles do nothing Widgets haven't been doing on Android for years now. They're functionally widgets. It's part of the reason why a lot of people just aren't buying the hype behind them. They can make their Android phones "theirs" just like any Windows Phone.
Microsoft makes a bit deal about Live Tiles because without them, people would never know anything that's going on in their life (generally speaking) if they used a Windows Phone. The OS lacks a full, robust Notification System otherwise. On Android Badges and [Live] Widgets are supplementary to the Notification System. On Windows Phone, they basically ARE the Notification System - therefore more app developers make it a point to update them with badge counts or images, which is more than possible (and even technically superior) on Android (due to the lack of some limitations Microsoft places on Live Tiles in WP8).
The Tiles Microsoft has for Email, Calendar, Clock, Me etc. are only aesthetically different from the Clock, Email, Calendar, Social widgets that Android OEMs put into their devices - most of which are resizeable... The same way People/Me Hub was no different than FriendStream or Social Hub on HTC/Samsung Devices.