I think this is just Google growing up. When you're a smallish company with little influence, what you say and who you talk to just don't matter. But when you're a big company, with big responsibilities and a big footprint, everything you say and do are closely watched, and therefore matter. You just can't run a multi-billion dollar enterprise like a free&easy five-person startup.
Isn't that a false dichotomy? Large organizations can have organizing principles other than profit at all costs. The groups of people that comprise these organizations just choose not to.
"Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely."