My theory is that Google used it's influence to hinder the API so they could work around the problems with Android's audio stack. They pushed for an API they knew they could get to work on Chrome for Android, rather than fixing Android (which is supposedly improved in 8.0).
Some person working at Google didn't know or care about Android? It doesn't seem all too unlikely that while he personally didn't care, his corporate overlords told him to work within the constraints of Android.
Chris Rogers started implementing his API in 2009, about three years before Chrome for Android was first released.
And do you seriously think in 2009 some corporate overlord said to Chris Rogers, "Android is going to be big, and so is Chrome for Android, but we've decided Android will have a crappy audio stack for several years, so you need to design around that"?