Also at Google, and my impression is that during the role posting exercise when the hiring manager is first talking with their recruiter, the recruiter asks whi

Also at Google, and my impression is that during the role posting exercise when the hiring manager is first talking with their recruiter, the recruiter asks which locations are acceptable, and "remote" is an option. Often the hiring manager will say, essentially, "I don't care" because they don't want to artificially restrict their candidate pipeline due to location preference. Then, once finalist candidates are in/through interviews, the rubber hits the road and the hiring manager realizes they probably actually do have location preference, and pulls the rug out from beneath the candidate(s). What seems like a small detail on the Google side is likely not appreciated for its enormity on the candidate's side, imho. As a hiring manager and frequent interviewer for other teams, this is my somewhat informed opinion of at least one likely root cause.