It never ceases to amaze me how blatantly incompetent Google is when it comes to software, blind and stupid is not hyperbole, the proper thing to do here is absolutely crystal clear, users are begging for it (I know, I've googled trying to find a desktop solution that works and doesn't cost $5/month ffs), and they just keep releasing pieces of crap over and over. It's hard to believe this is real life sometimes.
You're talking about company, you expect coherent product vision/strategy of a single entity.
Reality is that all these products are result of autonomy given to teams - it's not really pushed top-down, so new 'innovative' ideas are spearheaded and pushed up for strategy's adoption.
Are you actually calling out arguably the most successful web software company of all time (primarily through search and adwords) for being incompetent? A company that profits billions a...quarter?
Maybe chat just doesn't make them any money so they don't really give a shit and all of these things are pet projects that get shut down on a whim?
The key to Google is that their real Users are advertisers. That's it. The "users" you're talking about are the product they're selling to their real Users(Advertisers).
Boom. This is why Slack and Discord expand so much. Usability plus availability. Sad people at Google get paid a lot of money to not figure these simple things out. Know your enemy and then reimplement their work in your own better way. Allo needed a desktop client and the video stuff should of been built in stop trying to copy Apple in that regard.