It's a common misconception that Shadow DOM is required to create a "web component". What it brings to the table is style and dom encapsulation. Not using it means components won't have those benefit (by default), but there's nothing stopping people from creating custom elements that are not encapsulated.
An analogy can be made to requestAnimation. raF isn't required to create animations, but it's highly useful in that context. raF can also be used for other use cases outside of animations (scroll effects, etc). Shadow DOM is the same IMO. It's a useful standalone technology, but when used in the context of web components, it really shines.
Adding powerful new APIs to the web platform benefits more than just Angular, no? The set of evolving standards-based technologies behind "web components" (templates, Shadow DOM, HTMLImports, custom elements) can be utilized by any framework. More tools in our toolbox.
>Adding powerful new APIs to the web platform benefits more than just Angular, no?
Maybe, but that doesn't mean Google cares about enpowering the web platform in general.
If they did they wouldn't have removed other standard code (css regions), and they wouldn't have pushed for their, non-standard, Shadow DOM implementation.
That might be a bit of an exaggeration, although on the Angular side, we'd certainly like to have it pref'd on by default this summer (as unlikely as that may be).
Anyways, I really think people are sort of attributing malice to Glazkov's remarks where none really ever existed, WRT shipping the shadow DOM in its current state.
Shadow DOM is a key part of web components: http://www.w3.org/TR/components-intro/#shadow-dom-section