This doesn't seem all that surprising. You get what you measure. If Google has been placing a greater weight on direct short-term contributions than on blue-sky projects, and then putting employees in competition with one another, then of course employees are going to feel under pressure to reallocate that 20% of the time toward the stuff that makes them money. Some persist anyway, because of personal satisfaction or (much less often) sincere belief that what they're working on in their 20% time will eventually win big for both themselves and Google, but employees take those risks and make those deals at every company. The middle managers have no reason to support it as the general case, and most employees don't have the backbone to force the issue. Ultimately it's a bit like working from home. Some do it even at companies that don't have a policy for it, and some companies that do have such a policy don't really make it possible.