I recently saw that ARC is now supporting a few Google Play Services including Google Maps.
When using the ARC Welder, I specify the following metadata:
When copying your public key from the web store, it's important to select exactly the right thing. The highlighted portion below is the public key, make sure not to select the -----BEGIN/END PUBLIC KEY-----
annotations, and to remove any line breaks / whitespace (as you said you already had).
This Additional Metadata worked for my apk that uses Google Maps API for Android and Google Location API:
{
"usePlayServices": ["location", "maps"]
}