I think another factor here is likely that when traffic on a fake news site is high enough, it can actually get pushed to the top of Google's organic search res

I think another factor here is likely that when traffic on a fake news site is high enough, it can actually get pushed to the top of Google's organic search results (as happened with completely false popular vote results recently). In that scenario, they've manipulated Google into feeding them massive ad revenue with false information. Given Google's (now dead, I suppose) original intent to classify the world's information and make it easy to find, it's a pretty sad outcome. Glad they're taking action.