I likely would stop visiting Google as frequently as I do.

The sparse homepage is one of the main reasons I switched to Google way back in the day.

Well no. I hardly ever visit Google homepage these days. Only time I do so is when my friends tell me there is an interesting Google doodle.

All my Google use is done with Firefox search bar.

>Would you stop visiting Google if it had a homepage full of news?

Yes, clutter = slow, slow = I wouldn't use it.

I can't actually remember the last time I saw the home page outside a screenshot, I just use the chrome url bar search, which is about the limit i can currently imagine for a sparse search interface.