I read the book "In The Plex". A lot of academicians joined Google mainly because they wanted to get an actual product/service out into the hands of people instead of just doing research or writing papers.
I have a different reaction than you. It's good to see brilliant minds stepping outside of the academia and join a commercial entity to actually build something.
I have a different reaction than you. It's good to see brilliant minds stepping outside of the academia and join a commercial entity to actually build something.