This seems pretty plausible. This tool probably did threaten some product line or other with cannibalisation.

Is it plausible?

Imagine any leader that is not sundar trying to get this person fired. At some point, that leader would need to justify to either their leader, or a similarly leveled peer why they budgeted x SWE-years(where x is probably > 25) for a project that took this person far less than 1 SWE-year.

You’d be surprised how petty some people are.

It's pretty easy to justify that sort of thing off the notion that doing something "properly" requires more man hours.

There are truths to both sides of the argument.

sounds even more plausible under that scenario?

it makes them look lazy for not doing it already, this tool was sorely needed.