If highly senior/influential individuals at Google said the above, it's all the more interesting the company is not directly involved, either in software development or investment.
Agreed. My guess is that - in the context of big finance recently declaring its love for blockchain tech - Google is playing a waiting game. If it looks like a blockchain tech is taking off, it'll get involved. If such techs fail, there's The Original And Best Blockchain to fall back on.
(I hadn't heard about buttercoin - brb, off to do some learning!)