> Given Google's reputation for avoiding any type of direct customer support, I'm perplexed as to why they are trying to do this.

To reduce the threat of Apple from siphoning folks away from Android and thus disintermediating their advertising business.

That's the reason they went into Android and Chrome and half-baked subscription services: to defend the advertising business.

Nearly everything Google does out loud that's not GCP is ultimately motivated by the need to defend, sustain or grow the advertising business.

The rest of what they do gets a lot of media attention but comes close to being a rounding error by comparison to ... the advertising business.