Google had too much class? They've been scraping sites content for years before all this LLM stuff - using it to answer questions directly in search results and sending no clicks
I think Google has ethics in their self-image. Albeit more flexibility in practice.
But decisions might've come down to what keeps the ad revenue machine fed. Or it might not have made it to decisions.
If they were slow, wasn't it only in being prepared for when the boat got rocked? Until the boat got rocked, they had a monopoly, so why rock it themselves?
I wouldn't write in my promotion packet, "Disrupted our golden cash cow, and put our dominance and entire company at risk, before someone else did, because it would happen eventually, you'll thank me later, pls promo kthx."
No, I think Google was just slow this time