[cromwellian]

Really, IMHO Google "motto" boils down to "try not to be a dick". We don't always succeed (e.g. opt-in vs opt-out stuff, Real Names, etc), and employees don't always agree with what is done, but the company is too large with too many projects and too many users now not for mistakes to happen or edge cases not to be hit. Someone will always be upset with something, and so if you have some principle to guide you, at least you have something pushing back in a good direction.

I would argue that it's both a counterbalance to pure profit making decisions, but also, a pro-profit position. Sooner or later, too many user hostile decisions will lead to too much customer loss, and so trying to push back again those tendencies perhaps delays or avoids the loss.