You'd think they'd put together another team and make a separate frontend. I mean, surely they can build two web interfaces to the same backend storage servers, right? They should have plenty of programmers to throw at the problem.
The fact this hasn't happened probably says a lot about the situation, both technically and politically.
I wonder sometimes if it is the whole 'agile architecture' thing where one person can decide "Oh we're going to change protocol buffers for this service, I'll just push that out ..." and the collateral damage is far and wide. I used to think people who complained about the poor IMAP implementation were just unwilling to go with the flow, and then had the flow take me down to where most flows go after they have come out of the faucet :-).
The next step in the evolution is 'personal' clouds I think. An Internet appliance that you own that you use for mail and media and what not. Back to the future-past but with a more resilient design. Perhaps that idea will bear fruit, it isn't like its getting better in the "internet clouds."
The fact this hasn't happened probably says a lot about the situation, both technically and politically.