Yeah, I think my frustration with the promotion process is pretty widespread. People recognize that the promotion process is flawed, but they also recognize that it's hard to fix. And Google is aware and working to fix it, but making changes to something so important in a 70k+ employee organization is slow.

From other comments, it sounds like in the last month, they've gotten rid of committees for promotion decisions up to the level of Senior Software Engineer, so it does sound like they're moving in the right direction. I suspect in practice, there will be thorny incentives there as well, but I'm hopeful for them.