I can see someone saying, "ok, we launched Collections, your KPI is to increase usage by X%", and some UX designer figures "oh then we need to put Collections above Bookmarks and make it difficult to tell what's the difference so that we can say that Collections 'has traction'".
It never ceases to amaze me that people will read any randomly written headline on the internet and just assume that it's true, particularly when confirmation bias is present.
edit: The headline here used to be "Google moderates bookmarks", with the implication being that private bookmarks saved to your profile are moderated by Google.
Because from where I’m standing they fudge the lines between “collections” and old fashioned bookmarks and try their best to nudge people towards “collections”, only to then curate what you can and can’t save regardless of it being shared with others.
Edit: a fun way to think through the design constraints is to think about "how come Apple default-e2e syncs all sorts of things without an extra password but Chrome doesn't"
Lose your old device, get a new device, and you won't have the key. A normal user going through this flow would be furious. Only technically competent users understand that e2e has downsides and how to mitigate those.
I have 1 device -> I have 0 devices because I lost my phone
I think what you mean is "Google can do this for users with more than one device". Which they do.
E2EE has meaning, and being convenient to recover isn't in it.