To choose to run a comparison test seems objective and rational, but if Excite had its own people perform them, there is quite a risk of 'not invented here' (caveat: I know nothing about how these tests were conducted, beyond what is in the clip.) If your expertise is in search, and someone else has a better idea, you don't look so good. If, in addition, the people tasked with the testing were aware of Larry Page's demand, they would have had even less incentive to show PageRank as superior.

There is a long history of companies crushing the innovation they buy, and it is not necessarily a top-down effect. Page had good reason to make this issue a deal-breaker.