Maybe the Gmail team should realize we're all not children.
But second, people need to cut Google a little slack here. We all make mistakes, or errors in judgement, and Google is no different. Do we really want to live in a world where companies are afraid to innovate and try anything new, because people are going to jump on their backs if things don't work out? Part of the reason why Google was able to create so many great products, like Maps, Mail and so on, is because they've created an environment that's very conducive to creativity and experimentation.
As a consumer, I love the fact that Google has given me so many awesome productivity tools, with great features, completely for free, and I don't want them to ever lose the creative/experimental culture that made it possible. If you're not a fan of such a culture, if you just want a no-nonsense humorless stable suit-driven product, well, Microsoft has you well covered.
And make no mistake, this has hurt people, seriously.
Unless Google actually seeks those out and rights the wrong they did them, there is no sympathy or forgiveness they deserve in any way whatsoever.
It's quite likely that this was just directly shipped given that it's a one-day thing.
Nobody's asking them to stop innovating; you can be more rigorous in your shipping process (which they usually are) without affecting innovation.
Don't forget always-on surveillance of its users ;)
Why did it reach shipping before they realised it is the real question.
This is a terrible idea before it even leaves the whiteboard.
To put it another way, how am I supposed to get anything done when I'm spending all my time making sure the interface doesn't change beneath my feet?
From what I seen, the buttons didn't change, send has always been where it was, just another one was added.
It replaced the Send And Archive button that lives next to Send. (Adding a new one is still a bad idea, imho, but would have been borderline forgivable)
Nah, the bug is that it actually triggered on the normal send button as well, for some people.