The point is that there is no world in which any other company can outpay Google, regardless of whether or not they are better at search.
Another search engine that is 90% there and can offer only 10% of payments might have been good enough (at least in a certain time frame) if it gave Apple an opportunity to snub Google.
The point is that there is no world in which any other company can outpay Google, regardless of whether or not they are better at search.