I don't think Google fell at all. It's just that more people seem to be aware of the level they've been at forever.

I never understood the hype regarding don't be evil and such, how come a new generation could be so naive about corporations.

Don't Be Evil was never about not doing any evil. It was about the understanding that Google engineers were aware of their company's increasing power and influence, understood how their actions could cause great harm to society as a result, and were concerned enough to put their foot down and force management to codify the recognition in the corporate ethos.

And which got thrown overboard the moment it impacted their pocket books. Principles are worthless if you're not prepared to pay for them.

Indeed it was marketing fluff, like any big corporation has for their newly employees about "the mission", with compulsory training, that everyone forgets after a couple of months.

That is correct, but in old google, sometimes employee pushback would get shitty and evil plans/products/policies rolled back. Not all of them, but enough of them. I've seen it first-hand.

That's no longer the case.

If you are old enough to have seen Google under their founders vs modern Google which is run by McKinsey MBA types, there is a ton of difference. Ask any older guy who still works there.

That youtuber has been AI-upscaling a lot of his content for years. Perhaps he was able to 'upscale' his old video.

The published date should have probably been a clue.