> Take a guess why you need this for methods to work the way you expect them

This is not Google's fault. It is the fault of Java developers. They expect everything to work like Java. They expect to find Java APIs everywhere.

I have never written classes like that. In fact, if I were to see a method being used in the way you are insinuating I would believe to have found a bug.

I strongly dislike class-based object orientation in general. But I'm glad we do not have to deal with dozens of ways to do OOP in JavaScript anymore.