It seemed pretty obvious to everyone. Use a gamepass model so that less content stretches further, or offer a compelling variety of content - especially exclusive content - to make up for users paying full price every time.

They did neither and it's utterly boggling. They were clearly aware of their shortcomings when they dodged the more direct questions in early interviews. I don't know if it was just hubris, or an unwillingness at the top to understand. Or maybe the project started out too big to steer well and they just accepted it because, hey, high level paycheck.

There are probably a lot of now ex-googlers with a ton of I-told-them-so stories.