> It just left a bad taste in my mouth to see the needs and expertise of actual customers ignored by the Go team that way since the people in charge happened to be deploying in environments (i.e. Google) where those problems weren't 'real' problems

I feel for this, but only to an extent. It's hard to work in any service industry and retain any notion of, "the customer intelligently knows what they want," as a part of your personal beliefs. At the end of the day, you had an idea for a product, and you have to trust your gut on that product's direction, which is going to make some group of people feel a little unheard.