I disagree. If Google were to keep its grubby hands off the web, another corporation would step in and lead that effort and maybe even sabotage it. At least at that time Google's "don't be evil" motto was still alive enough that it was genuinely a good outcome. Can you imagine if Google didn't and Apple did? Clearly the outcome would be that Apple would complicate everything and make the web die a death by a thousand cuts and everyone would have had to switch to apps that only Apple can approve.
Slightly tangential, but I'd like to post a hyperbolic example against the "someone else would have done it anyway":
Yes, a Googler could drown a box full of kittens; but if we stop him, then someone else will just drown the kittens in his place.
I think you have to weigh the probability of it happening. It's unlikely someone else is going drown those kittens, as unlikely as it is someone else is going to stick their fingers into the web pot (considering, I can't think of any "FAAAAANGAMA" that has the same incentives).
