To me, this is the critical difference. Google is so large that if you end up in some tiny edge case, that "tiny" still includes tens of thousands of people yet

To me, this is the critical difference. Google is so large that if you end up in some tiny edge case, that "tiny" still includes tens of thousands of people yet Google is so large and impermeable that there exists no person that you can call. The only success stories involve people who personally know Google employees or who have social media accounts that get so much attention that it brings embarrassment to corporate Google. Google is too big to be allowed to exist.