Having worked on Maps myself (as well as other stuff at Google): you're exactly right. It's make-work. Fixing things that aren't broken, so the PM, UX, and Eng leads can say they did something and get promoted.

To be fair, the same process has been underway on MS Word and Excel for 30 years now. Simple things (like designating the top row of the spreadsheet to be a non-scrolling header) should be simple, and they're not anymore.