This isn't true (and I don't believe it's ever been true).
> I saw this at least with other Google Fellows
This also isn't true in general, there are no Google Fellows that report directly to Sundar. Not to mention that neither Ken nor Rob is a Fellow.
> and don't go through perf in any real sense
Why do you believe this to be true? Many people of similar stature (VPs are approximately equivalent to Google Fellows, and there are tons of VPs) have a real perf process, although it doesn't quite resemble the one you or I would have.
If you mean that he has no incentive to "play perf games", then that's true only insofar as they don't want to advance, which is true for the average Google engineer starting at L4 or L5.
> At Google seniority is revered.
This hasn't been my experience at all, I've had quite reasonable experiences pushing back against my directors and questioning my VPs.
Do you have an actual example of ways in which their treatment by Google differs from other engineers? These seem like conjecture about what their work experience is like.
Regarding being a Fellow: finding out that people respect senior engineers and take into consideration their past experience isn’t shocking, or an example of the rules not applying to them. Similarly, if you told me that a head chef at a restaurant has more impact on the menu than a line cook, it wouldn’t be an indication that the rules don’t apply to head chefs, or that nobody cares about their performance. And nobody would make claims that restaurant’s menu didn’t reflect their “ethos” because it was designed by an experienced head chef.
I actually do think that Go in its adoption by Google is a reflection of Google engineering values. I still don't think that someone who comes in to Google at the level that the Go creators came in would have the same experience as someone who came in entry level cut their teeth moving up through Google but that's just my perspective. A lot of people I met had only been at 1 or 2 other companies before Google (my TL had actually been at Google his whole professional life) and a lot of their opinions about engineering were shaped by how Google did things.
Edit: They're not actually fellows it's been pointed out but high ranking ICs like that do have a lot of respect within Google and are treated deferentially, especially famous ones just based on my own experience with high ranking ICs.