Maybe i need to be a little more snide....
We know the gravitational acceleration changes with the object's distance to the center of the Earth.
You can't calculate a falling object in a changing gravitational field,(-GmM/r^2 = Ma_r)without knowing the distance to the Earth's center and the mass of the Earth squared.
Let me ask you guys differently.
You say you don't need to know the Earth's mass and radius to determine g at a certain point in space ( constant gravity), but that's ridiculous, first of al,
We know gravity is not constant over distance,
and secondly,
You calculated this number to be 9.8ms2 by observation of a falling object near the earth surface by timing and measuring it, indeed possible with CONSTANT GRAVITY but you just don't want to know what this number tells you!! Thats the point here, i overlooked sorry

Well,
It comes from the radius and the mass of the Earth.
Lets get to the point and proving the Earth is a sphere, if you want to know the radius of the Earth you can use your observation that a object falls with a= 9.8ms2 and calculate the radius of the Earth with a=g.
If you calculate with g=9.8 ms2 and we know the mass of the Earth and we know G we can calculate the earth's radius.
So,
Indeed you can determine g at a certain point with observation and fixed gravity g= 9.8 ms2, but it also tells you the distance to the earth's center from that point.

It gives us the radius of the earth, your observation matches the radius of the Earth!
Because at the surface 9.8 ms2 matches exactly the Earth radius of 6.371 km
The mass of the Earth, and the radius of the earth squared in relation with the the acceleration of gravity proofs the Earth is in fact a sphere!
Thank you.