If they did this, how would you prevent people from saying that is unfair, or making it seem like it is pay to play, or something like that?
Disclaimer: Work at Google (far from this space); opinions are my own.
From a B2B standpoint, it's just the name of the game. If a partner business is a strategic asset, you fast-track them. Imagine an advertising firm treating a multi-national corporation at the same (crappy) level as a small, family-owned company. Or, imagine Microsoft treating the US government and an ordinary Windows user alike. That's bonkers, and yet it's an apt description of how Google does business right now.