Google is an enormous beast. It doesn’t care about you, or me, or the good of anyone. Sometimes its goals happen to align with a common good for awhile - and so good stuff can come from that. But often their goal do not, and they cause harm while crushing any possible alternative path. And as time goes on, less and less of what google does is for the common good.

For that reason, I think it is unwise to support google. Supporting them further entrenches their power, preventing others from contributing.

The smart engineers you spoke of would still be smart engineers with or without google. Google didn’t create them. They can still contribute with or without Google. But Google did direct their efforts to suit Google’s own needs. - Sometimes that’s also good for other people, but often it is not.