> forcing you to enable location history

Not defending them but is it forced? I remember being asked about it. I used to keep it off for a long time but keep it on now to keep track of places I visit.

> there is no technical reason for this.

I have seen them give you best time to leave from home/office for/after work based on developing traffic as notifications. Same for reminders of events in calendar with location context.

Also, just my assumption but they might be adding locality context to searches.