Even from the narrow view that in-house academic work is part of the PR budget (which I disagree with), Google has made a huge mistake here. This is a giant PR black eye for them. If the game is to pretend to have in-house ethical checks (say to avoid actual regulation), then they need to at least generate the appearance of independence. The correct sinister move here would either been to keep her on staff and give her the runaround or manage her out the door in a way that she wasn't particularly angry and where she signs a non-disparagement agreement.

But as others point out, it's entirely in Google's long-term interests to have internal critics who prod Google and the rest of the industry toward long-term behavior. So I think it makes good sense for them to have independent academics that occasionally make people uncomfortable.