for extreme longevity you would probably have to still find better ways to deal with, cure, or prevent heart attacks, even if we've already "cured aging"
Yes, of course. "Curing aging" by itself does little to help with a variety of fatal diseases. People who don't age will still die from infections, strokes, etc. etc.
For infections, of course. For things like strokes and heart attacks, it partly depends on what you mean by "aging". Even if your cells aren't aging, if your organs accumulate larger-scale damage over time and eventually fail, would that be considered aging? It's a question of definitions, more then anything else, but I would think it would be.
Google's announcement, Time magazine rather sensationalist headline.
In any case, it's nice to know that Google set its sights to "challenge ... aging and associated diseases". Apple's Tim Cook:
For too many of our friends and family, life has been cut short or the quality of their life is too often lacking. Art is one of the crazy ones who thinks it doesn’t have to be this way.
One more step towards "world optimization".