Moreover, Interface Builder's file format is quite literally a serialized version of the class constructed at runtime, as configured in Interface Builder. What can be done in IB can also be done in code, which is more than I can say for Android's xml.
What do you mean it's more than you can say? Android's system is precisely the same. To build an Activity you set up and extend Views using the ViewGroup function 'addview'
No, there are methods and settings that can be set via code that cannot be set via the XML, and vice-versa - I'm not talking about mixing them together. Yes, they are the same classes. No, they are not created and instantiated and configured in exactly the same fashion; there are occasionally differences.