I didn't read the GP as making a statement about the _creators_ of Go, but rather about its target users. And Go is explicitly targeted at "Programmers working at Google [who usually] are early in their careers and are most familiar with procedural languages, particularly from the C family."[0] If Google's interviews gateted on the sort of programming language questions the GP mentioned, then Go's target users would have been very different, and Go would likely be a different (better? Worse?) language.

[0]:https://talks.golang.org/2012/splash.article