I think those little things are a part of Google DNA from the early days and actually have a huge impact on the brand perception.
I am pretty sure easter eggs were a significant part of what made Google a cool company 10-15 years ago to my young eyes. The answer to life, the hidden games in Android, the raptor game in Chrome. At the time, it was rare for public company to do those silly things.
It was NOT rare. Microsoft used to do a huge multitude of easter eggs. Most big companies stopped because there was fear that easter eggs would increase the attack surface for hacking. For one concrete example, the PHP easter egg was useful to tell which (usually vulnerable) version of PHP a site runs so that you can run exactly the script you need to attack it.
I am pretty sure easter eggs were a significant part of what made Google a cool company 10-15 years ago to my young eyes. The answer to life, the hidden games in Android, the raptor game in Chrome. At the time, it was rare for public company to do those silly things.