I think it's interesting. What I'm wondering is, does that mean given current technology and "infinite" budget, Google could have this high a resolution for the whole planet? What stumbling blocks, obvious or otherwise, are preventing such an upgrade?

Or is this just a one-time hack where they took the picture from an helicopter or something... In other words, Will it Scale(tm)?

A lot of the better images are aerial instead of from satellites. Close-up like this is not common though, costs would probably be insane.

I guess this image was donated by an independent person to Google, a employee maybe.

Actually, we booked an overflight (plane) a couple of years back at Foo.

Yes it's most likely from a plane or helicopter. Most of the highest resolution stuff in google maps/earth is (the big cities, etc). And no, it won't scale.