FYI, in the case of Google Wallet for Digital Goods, Google essentially did what you are saying they wouldn't do.

Google Wallet for Digital Goods was retired a couple of months back, but they still use it on some Google properties. It's still used for the Chrome Web Store developer fee & I think Android, too. They essentially just made it private.

You might argue that BigTable going through the same thing would be too impactful, but GWDG was quite impactful as well. Businesses that had subscribers paying monthly subscriptions via Google Wallet lost those subscribers.