Phead I understand that it seems weird that a company such as Google (which is known for data collection) builds a privacy friendly phone
It is absolutely not weird at all nor unsupportive of Google's main biz: advertising.
Yes, Google needs to collect as much data about individuals as possible, to offer advertising that customers (foolishly) believe "works" and is worth their expenditure.
However, Google makes their billions by selling that advertising repeatedly. if they sold the profile they collected/built about people using their services they might only do so once.
Google's profile of each individual is also enhanced by being current: showing relevant advertising for that time and place e.g. restaurants of a specific type on a Google map at dinner hour in a specific part of town, for a specific person.
Google does care about privacy in these ways:
- If the Google ecosystem was publicly identified as having major data leaks then people would tend to avoid Google services. They have to reliably keep data collected confidential to them, to maintain some kind of trust and to be able to resell time-limited access via advertising to many buyers repeatedly.
- Many others are also trying to spy on Google's products (people). Google needs to limit competitors' access.
- The Pixel was launched because Google was pissed that phone manufacturers were not shipping (security) updates after initial sale quickly enough or even at all. Google needed to establish a standard for others Like LG and Samsung to follow. By offering 5-7 years of updates they are continuing what they always wanted to happen.