> There's no possible way that Google is going to make a change to their biggest money maker that would make them LESS money.

I know this sounds laughable given how toothless regulators have been thus far, but let's not forget that a) fines under GDPR have been growing and are likely to continue to do so, with ad tech in a particularly awkward spot, and b) both the EU and US governments and regulators have started nosing around big tech on a variety of fronts, including privacy and antitrust concerns.

Given that, the cost-benefit analysis becomes pretty complicated. They may feel a shift to a scheme which lowers revenues while avoiding regulatory scrutiny now makes sense.