By the same type of abrasive, quick to conclude mindset, you must be a different type of program manager - you believe that just because you do not use a certain feature, no one else should be allowed to use it either.

Exactly, just because google is adding a bunch of cool free non obtrusive features doesn't mean that they are stifling innovation in their main field. Google is a large company with countless divisions, it isn't just one engineer who can only work on one project at a time or anything.