Yes, it's more about hype and politics than installation. I thought that was obvious. If the hype and politics doesn't get the big ISPs off the dime, then it may have to become about installation, in which case the experience Google Fiber is obtaining will become important.
Right now, all those ISPs are directly in between Google and their users. In any discussion about net neutrality, this gives Google a powerful and highly visible next-best alternative to a negotiated outcome.
Due to Google Fiber being available as a threat, Google will never have to pay net neutrality fees like Netflix does, because they can simply come in to an area and cause a huge amount of pain for the incumbent ISP that threatened them. Even just publicly discussing moving in to an area causes significant expenses for existing ISPs.
Verizon got a lot further with fiber-to-the-home, with coverage for about 12% of households in their territory, before they gave up on FIOS expansion. It wasn't making money.
Sonic.net makes money with their fiber to the home system, but they only have a few cities around Santa Rosa, CA installed, and are trying for three neighborhoods in San Francisco. Maybe it pays because they don't spend so much on PR.