When SSL first came out there was a heavy focus on informing the public to check for the padlock; that if they were worried about fraud then checking for the padlock was a concrete step they could take to help reassure themselves. But there was never a similar campaign regarding EV certs. There were attempts, but they were short-lived and not nearly as aggressive. Partly that's because the messaging was more difficult, but it could have been done.
Google could have put more effort behind it. But they weren't interested, partly because as someone else mentioned they have their own ideas about how to move forward, ideas that just happen to fit in better with Google's commercial interests. Some of those ideas are reasonable, but again this isn't an either-or situation. They're making it either-or.
can't they also scour the certificate transparency logs as well? I'd imagine that's easier and more reliable than scouring the public records of hundreds or thousands of jurisdictions.