From the horses mouth: "we believe that being open about these security issues helps users better protect their information online."

The attacks relied on the victim's naivety and lack of knowledge. If you read the blog post [1], I think it's pretty clear that the purpose was to educate users on how to improve their security when using Google products.

[1] http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/ensuring-your-informa...