In their public begging for forgiveness[2], RG submits that they want "to create an amazing experience for users and hope they prefer us to all other lyrics sites," which they appear to have done. Certainly I prefer RG to other sites for lyrics; the UX is generally just better and the additional functionality of the annotations would appear, in my eyes, to only increase the value. I've gotten malware from other lyrics sites in the past, and I've had to deal with other sneaky tactics from other sites (like embedding a link in the lyrics when I copy them). I submit that RG is almost categorically a better result for if I Google something like "whoa lyrics earl sweatshirt" than another site.
Does Google have a responsibility to the users the best possible results even if they tried to mercilessly self-promote? Or does such blatant gaming of the system deserve such a crippling blow?
[1]http://searchengineland.com/google-has-officially-penalized-rap-genius-for-link-schemes-180777
[2]http://news.rapgenius.com/Rap-genius-founders-open-letter-to-google-about-rap-genius-seo-lyrics