having mixed feelings, on one hand I'm super happy that Firebase has grown to where it is now, the product has always been awesome and with Google I can only see it getting even better (Especially after seeing its Angular binding, and how Angular features Firebase as its default backend). On the other hand, I've loved how Firebase as a small team, always stays close with their users, listen to feedback from them and provide a lot of help and guidance. I often think of Firebase team members as friends and teachers. I don't know if they will be able to stay this way after joining such a big firm like Google :'(
Google's track record of interacting directly with developers is really good: public issue trackers, public mailing lists, monitored Stack Overflow tags... What track record are you speaking of? What could devrel be doing better?