I like seeing these baby steps. While the implementation itself doesn't seem to make any sense (use a third party for something that was designed specifically to not need a 3rd party), it does show that large players are increasingly taking crypto seriously. It is exiting the "magic internet money" phase, and entering the beginning phase of mass adoption.
I don't consider it as a baby steps if Google will take at the end FIAT instead of cryptocurrencies. I don't know if Google will keep a sold in crypto or just convert it in the end to cash and withdraw it. I don't see anything mentioned in the article about the contract made between these two.