Here's a more down-to-earth thought experiment:
Think about the intentions/audience behind a programming language vs the intentions behind a massive consumer product company like Apple.
I like the programming languages I use to be free and open-source - not constricted by some gigantic corporation (coughOracle). Free, open ideals come from the old hobbyist counter culture a few decades ago. That stuff predates me but when I see that ridiculous gopher I feel like they don't care about how they look, and would rather focus on the language itself and keeping their audience (devs) happy. Kind of like - no one cares about the suit, I don't care how you look - just get stuff done.
All this begs the question - why the fuck did they spend time on this branding?