I think it's purely a strategic tech stance. Google building an at least on-par browser competing with safari was not good for apple, and the faster way to achi

I think it's purely a strategic tech stance. Google building an at least on-par browser competing with safari was not good for apple, and the faster way to achieve that for google was to poach engineers, especially that the iPhone was probably in the pipes at this time. For engineer, compensation is not everything, regardless of money, going to google to build a browser would easily look like a good idea at the time.