Google’s product lead on the system, Micah Berman, insisted it had worked. “We are confident that this system fired and sent alerts,” he told the BBC. However, the company did not provide evidence that these alerts were widely received.
Personally I don’t think they have any responsibility to build such a system, or even have it function properly. By “weird flex” I was specifically referring to the “We are confident that this system fired and sent alerts” line.
Obviously my view is anecdotal (especially the whole “No one got any sort of alert” part of my original comment), so take what I say with a grain of salt!