I think Google is an insecure advertising company.
It's as if Phillip Morris International was trying to develop solar panels and vegan food products to make everyone forget that most of their revenue comes from tobacco.
Would have made it harder for the public to hate big tobacco if they had been putting their names behind good stuff for all the years they had insane profits. Might even have kept regulators from decimating their business.
Google is not a person. It can't feel anything. It is also composed of several teams, so it's perfectly possible for Google to look both to the left and to the right at the same time, before the higher ups decide to do some spring cleaning and shut down projects that don't align with their bigger picture.
