In exchange for no bloatware, a Pixel offers you an all-in-one spyware device.

Actually I just used GMaps yesterday and noticed it no longer suggests locations (recent or otherwise) when starting a map search because I have "web and app activity" turned off in privacy settings too. It is just a blank screen with a search bar. That one just seems spiteful, but also why the fuck would "app activity" be relevant to locations of interest around me?

All these changes put together tells me Google is desperate to squeeze out as much ad placement value from their services as possible and are willing to nuke their app experiences to do it.