I think it’s more of a “started with good intentions” type deal.

They weren’t always an evil company. Then, as they became embroiled in corporate greed, they didn’t always make phone hardware, meaning the open source OS that Samsung and LG and the other brands were making were shipping with Google products built in.

Now that they have their own foot in the door for hardware, they have more corporate incentive to start reeling in the software from the free section.