Google has made false overtures about protecting user privacy by potentially deprecating third-party cookies when there are many tracking methods less well-known than cookies

That's true, but Google has also been trying to introduce new non-tracking ways to have targeted advertising directed by your browser. The Topics API actually seemed like a really cool idea, but unfortunately it didn't get the take-up from other browsers or from websites that it would have needed to actually replace third-party cookies. They weren't "false overtures", they were sincere, but relied on the broader ecosystem picking up non-tracking alternatives like Topic (or working constructively to develop even better systems). Since that failed, Google's backed down and is allowing third-party cookies to remain indefinitely.