They have around 1/2 million subscribers which is a rather large ISP to call it dead. While it is not growing fast that's not Googles goal.

Google fiber is still a useful stick as Google can just say paying you X billion for Y years before running you out of business is option A, option B is not paying you anything you chose. It's a large part of why YouTube has avoided many of Netflix's issues with ISP's.

I wish they had stuck around a little longer solely to start "looking into" areas. That was sometimes enough to trigger the current monopoly to start behaving more friendly. Even though Google didn't move in, it's now a lot harder for Comcast to go back to selling 20Mbs @ $100/month after they've offered 60Mbs @ $50/month.