People only hold Google to those standards because Google positions themselves as a champion of openness and user's rights. As you point out, these standards m

People only hold Google to those standards because Google positions themselves as a champion of openness and user's rights. As you point out, these standards may not be entirely realistic for a for-profit company operating in a very competitive space. Google therefore must either take the risk that their standards will actually make them into a stronger company, or gradually compromise them for competitive advantage. The problem with the compromise approach is that it undermines trust even more than if they'd never held themselves to such high standards in the first place, and that's where the backlash comes from.