Why does Google Drive create so many conflicted files?
I noticed the same issue, the problem it seems is when you 'edit' a file it get locked by the application and the google drive auto sync kicks in and creates a conflict file.

I notice this mostly with Photoshop files, as the files can get pretty large and the sync doesn't happen quickly like a simple text file and it cause a lot of duplicates.

My solution:  pause google drive while I am working on these files and when done, let them sync.