Hi there,
My name is Martin and I consider myself a google contributor for quite a long time now.
I started very humble by adding a few pictures of my hometown and few from my trips years back when google maps were pretty new and contributions were not even in the form as you know them now. Photos were simply pinned in google earth to certain place on the map.
Time advanced same as technology and I started to contribute more and more from my travels just for the fun and a simple happines that I can help other people find lovely spots for food, hike or just chill on the sun.
Nowadays some of the places have my picture as the first one you can see when you google them and as I’m always trying to promote places at its best I’m pretty sure it does help them to attract more people. Also it does help people googling those places to decide to visit them 
At least I hope that what I wrote is true because I will carry on as I love google maps and this community 