I work in Google and it's nothing like this (as long as by "the users" you mean the two-four teams you interface with, not the one-two billion humans using the end product). Your approach to problems would fit right in and the described manager wouldn't keep managing for long.
On the other hand, I once mentored a person working in another company. I've been giving advice that I would give to a junior Googler. They got fired :(