I think every other design that they have ever done apart from that Google search homepage has been horrible and bad. So that's why they lucked out on that first one.
I've read a bunch of stuff about their design and why it's so bad, including this one. Bottom line is you cannot scientifically manage your way to design. That is why in the future we are going to see designers with aesthetic sense become more and more useful as AI sort of like starts doing everything.
