It's entirely plausible that Niantic didn't realize they were asking for too much specifically because Google didn't show the permissions being asked. So any time they tested their own app, they would have just seen what everybody else saw, which is that the app asked for access to the Google Account with no mention of what permissions.
Despite that, it is wexing that they wouldn't come across this issue during testing. Maybe it's a production issue. I am very interested in a technical explanation from either Google or Niantic. They surely had to test iOS app and check their Google permission page. Otherwise it would be really sloppy testing.
