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I just don't get it. Why is this needed?

But I have no doubt there is a play happening here.

Probably it will change over time to make gathering data easier?

Or something else that makes Google money.

google.com/maps to capture your location across the whole domain easier than before

Google maps on mobile is directing the user to the native app more and more. So I doubt this. Geolocation on desktop is mostly useless.