There is no better state

google is making this for cash. if you want to make a survey you can go to google and google is then putting your survey in front of the users for you who then can participate in the survey. so if you want to know "do you eat meat?" you just want specific answers..like yes or no. not "superman" or "trololol" as a answer. and because google is giving users for this google play money (and get money offcourse), they make sure you answer it correct / in a format you should.

Yes but a drop down list of choices would be far more efficient

that's right^^