Is there anything Larry and Sergey could have done when they first set up the shares that would have avoided (or delayed) having to do a stock split? e.g. given the Class B shares 20 or 100 votes?
Yes - they could have issued the Class A without any votes from the start. That would have avoided the split. They could have also, as you said, given their Class B shares more votes per share. That would have delayed the split.
