Google is no more Evil than any company out there trying to make a buck. Do they care about their users? Sure, but only up to the point where it hurts the bottom line to do so.
This new tactic moves along the same line as their view on SEO. Do they want to make it more difficult to obtain better ranking in their site? Yes, but only to the point where they make it easier to pay to get better position within listings.
Is this new process for handling SSL information biased towards their paying customers? Obviously, they are looking to differentiate their free and paid service. If this were to move into larger deployment, say all users (logged in or not), they would be able to offer, as a premium, to their paying customers rereferer data exclusively.
Follow the money! Does the fact that Google is out there to make a buck surprise anyone? I understand that's their goal and I don't consider them to be Evil because of it.
With that said it seems clear that they are not using standard SSL and therefore they should not be able to advertise that their site uses SSL or HTTPS, IMHO.