> so I don't see what Google could add other than lots of money and SWE hours

That matters.

> IMO letting Fitbit die would have been better for users privacy-wise.

Have you seen what some companies do when they are on the brink of insolvency? They start firing engineers, best practices lapse, and they start monetizing everything.

And have you seen the EU data privacy conditions?

And finally, of the companies that could have bought them, which has a better record of keeping their users' data private then Google?

But also, as a Fitbit user, if I wanted all my data deleted I could do that, but I absolutely do not. I want it kept private, supported, and crunched by a company like Google to our mutual advantage.