That's a small demographic, in my opinion.
The bigger pie are the people who are actively seeking out information about Mercedes via search.
But if I'm searching less because it sucks, then that's a big problem.
Google is a search company. I hope it doesn't lose sight of that.
Improved browser speed and increased bandwidth means that you can perform more searches in a given time. Degraded search results mean that you will do so, and thereby generate more advertising impressions and hence more potential for revenue. Or to put it another way, anyone ever becomes so frustrated with the Google Search's results that they clicked on a sponsored link or other ad to see if that's what they wanted?
Companies pay a lot to get people that don't know about their products to be aware and interested in them. The other side is actually the smaller market.
As a company whose revenue is based on data-mining internet traffic, it makes perfect sense because of the potential value of pushing ads to an individual based on knowledge of their social network, e.g. pushing Mercedes ads to a person whose friends all drive Porsches. And for Google, that's what better search means - it doesn't mean putting useful long tail information on the front page when such information is not easily monetized.