I think this is an excellent acquisition by Google, specifically for their cloud platform. It provides an excellent solution to the problem of managing apis and a tight integration with cloud platform will really make it stand out.
The Dell-EMC merger itself is fascinating, but really stands above it is all the other company's that EMC owns: VMWare, Spring, Pivotal, RSA Security, and a whole stable of backup/recovery companies.
All of these have deep inroads in the enterprise and really makes working on Dell-owned products opaque to the user. It's like Dell has become, or will soon become, the Koch Industries of the computing world.
The water resistant argument is weak at best. I've had water resistant android phones for years without extra bulk. The problem is solved, all Apple had to do is look.
With that said, I don't actually disagree with taking the headphone jack out. I do think there needs to be a more universal replacement than what they are suggesting though.
I would assume because this space is becoming more of a commodity and their tool is no longer unique -- on it's face. So by making it available to customers they can garner goodwill and entrench themselves.