I think they recognize all too well that it matters, which is seen by the massive effort in developing and supporting Android, Chrome OS etc. This is just Googles version of Microsoft giving away IE.
This isn't really controversial, it was one of the major factors of the antitrust case against MS, and MS didn't argue they didn't do it, only that it wasn't illegal afaik.
[0] http://www.businessweek.com/1998/42/b3600109.htm [1] http://www.justice.gov/atr/cases/f2600/2613toc_htm.htm
Really, the situation Google needs to keep pressure on, to prevent a modern equivalent to what happened to Netscape, was almost acted out with Maps on iOS.
As for whether the case had any merit.. ok? What I said doesn't rely on the case having merit. Like I said, MS admitted to doing this.