Google will gradually reduce Pixel 9a battery capacity on purpose as it ages

they can't do the opposite (edit: well, besides derating the battery up front, but they would never do that since it would tarnish their spec sheet/marketing claims), since from the factory it is pushing the rated voltage of the battery to the max at 100% SoC, they can't push it past the physical limitations of the battery chemistry and construction

If I wanted to be overly generous, it's not untrue that this is a way for google to still advertise X hours of use on a single charge, but also extend battery lifetime for the average person who doesn't get into the settings and fiddle with things.

But this is a flawed approach. There's nothing special about the first 200 cycles, if you want to extend the lifetime of your battery, just keep the cycles between 20 and 80%, don't over or under charge, and it will last years longer. I think they already have the setting to limit charging like that.

but depending on how it's implemented it may end up having the apple-esque effect of purposefully degrading the experience of older devices to push people to upgrade. And making it mandatory and invisible to the user is just malicious