Simple: if you use the Google assistant, you get notifications about packages and flights. Flights get added to your calendar automatically, and other such niceties (for example, I get notified when I have a credit card payment due). A lot of people find this useful.
An ecosystem with useful features leads to profitability without any sort of malice, like people buying Android (or pixel) phones, or google homes, or whatever.
Consider this, Google is focused on maximizing profitability and most features people don't pay for. How does that work? Who are the paying customers, how does Google maximize income from them, and how does it impact the non-paying users?
An ecosystem with useful features leads to profitability without any sort of malice, like people buying Android (or pixel) phones, or google homes, or whatever.