Well if I have the copyright I can straight up sell software based upon it without telling people you made it. Or I can release your code or derivatives of it under a different license while privately selling it under other licenses for profit. If these things don't bother you, then feel free to contribute.
In fact, what I'm trying to understand exactly is if I assume that you are correct that there is no difference, then why would Google require the contribution in the first place?
edit: If this ( https://cla.developers.google.com/about/google-individual ) is the CLA in question, then you additionally agree on a patent grant to Google and those those Google distributes it to. So if Samsung takes the code and distributes it to other customers those customers and Samsung are not covered by the same grant? Why is this all centered on Google? Why is not simply a general patent grant as part of the submission to anyone receiving the code?
In fact, what I'm trying to understand exactly is if I assume that you are correct that there is no difference, then why would Google require the contribution in the first place?
edit: If this ( https://cla.developers.google.com/about/google-individual ) is the CLA in question, then you additionally agree on a patent grant to Google and those those Google distributes it to. So if Samsung takes the code and distributes it to other customers those customers and Samsung are not covered by the same grant? Why is this all centered on Google? Why is not simply a general patent grant as part of the submission to anyone receiving the code?