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No only it was problem waiting to happen, it's extremely annoying to the end-users to be redirected all around with forced languages based just on their IP. But that's what google does all over the place...

Local domains get higher CTRs and hence rankings on Google.

Blogspot is an acquired Google property, hence they actually needed to care about SEO instead of just forcing their results up through rich snippets and widgets.

source: https://support.google.com/blogger/answer/2402711?hl=en

but other country specific URLs current redirect to .com

Google has said that this is to comply with local laws that may require censoring certain kinds of content: https://support.google.com/blogger/answer/2402711?hl=en