Its true, google sites are ranking much better than before. But, how long it will rank? I am not sure, i think very soon they will be disappear.
Google gives extremely unfair advantage to their properties, it was the case with google+, which could not be saved by google even after asking seo's link their profile with the website. I think these parasites of google will too disappear soon.
If googe will continue to be this much unfair, then soon they will be doomed like yahoo.