BLE tags use a compatible phone to report their location back to a central service, but unless you had an Apple Airtag [or AirTag compatible], your tags would only be picked up by other phones with the Tile app installed. This is of course fine if you're just keeping track of your keys and other household items, but Apple Airtags are really popular to slip into luggage, packages, and other valuables as a cheaper [and far smaller] alternative to SMS/GPS trackers.
These new tags use a component in Google Play Services [installed on every Android phone with the Google Play store], instead of the Tile app, making them, at least on paper, as good or better than Airtags, and far more reliable than Tile tags for remote tracking.
Instead of waiting for a phone with the Tile app installed to come by, now any android phone can pick up and report these tags back.
There's the whole problem of privacy, security, etc involving any BLE tag, but that's a whole different can of worms..