Feels like this field has become a lot about doing the easy, visible parts, getting a month of attention, maybe a promotion, then moving on to the next "new project".
Meanwhile, the people who stay behind and actually make these half-finished apps work properly, maintain them and deal with all the boring problems rarely get the same credit or benefits.
Google is notorious for prioritizing new features and new apps for promotion, so yes.
Then let the app die on the vine for a while and ultimately abandon it a couple years later.