Does Google ruin its Google Earth images on purpose?

Question

Hi,
until a few years ago you would find single satellite images of larger regions on Google Earth. The most recent images, however, look more like patchwork. Often there are patches completely surrounded by another image (from another database?), which makes you wonder if that patch isn't also visible on the other image. I find this annoying because the changing colors make the image unclear.
Does Google do this on purpose, e.g. to protect its copyright on the images? And do you get better images with the Pro version?
TIA
Steven

edit
here's another patchwork example.

Answer 1

Google does not take these satellite images, they buy them from various different companies that do so, hence the difference in quality. Yet, this question is not programming related :)