Because Google wants to have their cake and eat it too. They want to leave "products" in beta for years (gMail being the canonical example), they want to shut d

Because Google wants to have their cake and eat it too. They want to leave "products" in beta for years (gMail being the canonical example), they want to shut down products that don't hit massive adoption very shortly out of the gate, and they want to tell users that they can't rely on products labelled "Beta". If it's beta and not to be relied on, of course they won't hit the adoption numbres they need to keep it alive. Google needs to pick a lane, and / or learn which products to label "Alpha" instead of calling everything Beta