Yes.

That was 2017.

I am sure the response to that case made smart people avoid sticking their necks out.

For me it probably was the straw that broke the camels back for me. I was in the hiring pipeline at that point and while I doubt that they would have ended up hiring me anyway, I think my absolute lack of enthusiasm might have simplified that decision.

It was a dark time. It generated so much internal controversy (many googlers agreed with Damore) that Sundar had to cut his vacation short, and an interest group managed to get the "company-wide chat" about it cancelled because they said they were at risk of physical harm. memegen and plus were a mess for months. People argued (as they do here) about the semantics of what he said, and what his underlying thinking about women was, whether "the science" was valid, etc. People saying smart things would get yelled down, and people saying dumb things would get upvotes. And vice versa.

You probably made the right choice. Google had already been in decline at that point, but it was clear that Sundar was no leader, just somebody Larry Page appointed to maintain the peace between his lieutenants so the engine could keep printing money.

I honestly think that incident helped make the type of people who would have the nerve to stick their neck out and say "This is racist" avoid Google like the plague.

Sundar absolutely had to fire Damore because he came out with the arguments like that women are too neurotic for high stress jobs. The thing is even Damore's more reasonable points were ignored and Google's ideological echo chamber only strengthened.