I'm not sure if "outpay Google" is necessary for that. Apple and Google are competitors, in some aspects this seemed almost personal (Steve Jobs mentioned "thermonuclear war", see https://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspence/2015/01/31/how-apple...)

Another search engine that is 90% there and can offer only 10% of payments might have been good enough (at least in a certain time frame) if it gave Apple an opportunity to snub Google.