I think it's more than that. If you also consider AMP and various Chrome redesigns, there is this feeling that Google wants to take control of the web. URLs and site's actual locations are being de-emphasized, and searching is becoming more "ask question, get an answer" instead of "enter query, get documents best matching it".
Yeah. AMP is the intentional promotion of content whose creators care a lot about SEO over content which is more reputable, relevant and established and sometimes even with lower page weight. If they're losing a battle with spammers on mobile, it's because they gave them a loaded gun and lined up their search results in its crosshairs.
