[bryanallen22]

Google is really doing this to get people to put this in silicon for consumer devices. VHDL/Verilog aren't tied to FPGAs at all - they work equally well for custom silicon.

FPGAs aren't appropriate for high volume - they cost far too much per unit. (Silicon has massive upfront cost, but very little per unit cost.) FPGAs are useful in low volume applications and places where the hardware may need to be modified.

Cell towers were (are?) big users of them because 1) cell specs were changing frequently and the FPGA behavior could be modified and 2) there weren't enough cell towers to make the front loaded cost of silicon worth it.