Oh of course they would have been better off in a world where Qualcomm was friendlier, but that's not the question. Let's look at the cost/benefit to Google's decision if we assume there isn't a huge outcry.
If Google insisted on shipping stock images it would have cost them. Either by picking an inferior chip, or by upsetting Qualcomm, or by Qualcomm charging them a higher price. Therefore they chose a position of some benefit to them when they decided not to ship stock images.
The best way to counter this benefit is a public shaming, so that in the end it's costlier than the other options would have been. But Google's not stupid; they wouldn't have made such an anti-openness move if they expected it to cost them.
