It appears that Google are
experimenting with a few nTLD, including some like .xyz or .news that they don't even own. But there is no consistent pattern. I think people are deifying Google, they don't succeed in all they do, they actually trashed a number of projects and have had their fair share of failures.
Remember for example their failed attempt at competing against Facebook, or their failed AdSense for Domain program back in the day, or Google domains that few people (even among domainers) are using, ever wonder why.
Some people were predicting the death of parking companies and registrars...
Abc.xyz was a good publicity stunt for Negari but few people would consider it a credible extension today, and that won't change.
Even a super-powerful entity like G doesn't dictate the whole agenda alone.
BTW, the article dates back to March and some of the domains quoted as examples are not resolving
debtrelief.management: dropped and available, you can buy it for $5 and enjoy one backlink
model.fitness: in redemption
Not being mean, it had to happen since the article was written 6 months ago and things change.