"Every word on every Google page is in the same typeface. No brand images appear other than Google's. This action essentially neutered the production values of every high end content creator."
During the 90's portal wars, search companies like Yahoo filled search result pages with brand images. The idea was to keep the user engaged on the search portal for as long as possible.
Then Google came along and said, hey, our goal is to actually get users off the search result page and to their content as fast as possible. That is why I use Google search. It gets me to high end content faster than anyone else can. IMO, this doesn't decrease production value of the content, it actually makes it better.
"Long term, focus on HTML5. The sooner you commit to HTML5, the more likely you will produce something of economic value."
FWIW, Google's platform is the web, and they are really advocating and pushing the HTML5 spec. For the past 3 years, Google Chrome has been leading the way in this area: http://html5readiness.com