I generally agree with your comment - industrial research is not academia. But (relative) freedom to publish is a very important consideration when attracting top-flight researchers. Especially in ML! I mean, even Apple's ML team publishes.

I'm not sure Google Brain's recruiting pitch includes a description of them blocking publication of a paper you'd worked a long time on (and even given them a heads up about, as Gebru apparently had). Their pitch is almost certainly about being able to do research similar to how you would in academia (except with more money and resources, etc.).