The adage "If you aren't paying for it, then you are the product" is a bit trite and worn out, but it in Google's case "If you aren't paying for it, you aren't

The adage "If you aren't paying for it, then you are the product" is a bit trite and worn out, but it in Google's case "If you aren't paying for it, you aren't the customer" is entirely accurate. While individual Google engineers are almost certainly motivated to do great things for end users, the company as a whole has little incentive to make a great consumer experience. Google feels like it's in a very awkward "You can't get there from here" position. I think they'd like to move more towards having a direct financial relationship (Google Pixel, YouTube's ad-free service, are good examples) with their customers but can't quite figure out how to get there. Pivoting a free product like Docs into a for-fee product often creates a ton of bad feelings for a company.