There were probably covert ways to obtain the same information but it's now easier for Google to grab the information using regular APIs.
It also means if app X and app Y on their own subdomains were previously using location APIs without any tricks, you are now effectively opting into both apps.
Bottom line: technically it doesn't matter but it probably makes a difference in practice.
Browser could implement finer grain permissions (i.e. only permit the API use for a given top level path regexp) but I bet most users won't bother fine tuning their grants.
It also means if app X and app Y on their own subdomains were previously using location APIs without any tricks, you are now effectively opting into both apps.
Bottom line: technically it doesn't matter but it probably makes a difference in practice.