Yeah, you are right about that. My main point was just about messaging in general where Google couldn't evolve Gtalk into a smartphone era messaging app.

XMPP I consider as an advantage personally as with lock in to platforms like Messenger/WhatsApp we complain about the total control these companies have. In an XMPP world, at least you could have had more control over clients and the ability to talk to a different Jabber server from the same client app.

I agree though that the XMPP bit, no normal user cares about.