Apparently what folks noodled out, google was worried they wouldn't be able to control the narrative at a large meeting. Better to have a ton of much smaller meetings that are more easily staged, controlled, scripted. If something goes off the rails, it's an isolated incident. They can learn as they go and prune out dissenting opinion without it impacting everyone.
They have an absolute right to crush internal dissent and be politically biased as hell. I'm not knocking that. But they've in the past tried to portray themselves as "good guys" rather than say, Evil Big Bad Microsoft. Hilariously now, Apple is the enemy of geeks and MS is the plucky do-gooder more often than not. Except their Windows 10 team, which are so evil that Satan, Zombie Hitler and Pluto have gotten restraining orders against them.