Indeed. It was one thing to release a prototype to people interested in experimenting and playing around. It was another to push it through a retail channel alongside designer frames.
Certainly the time they released it to the UK market Google would have known that they were selling an evolutionary dead end as if it were a product.
I would assume this was more an act of internal political cowardness at recognizing reality rather than grubbing for money.
Originally. Then they started to sell it on the play store for $1500 with a full marketing page and no explanation that it was a beta product.