This is a useful piece of writing. Underlying it, however, is some kind of strange "status anxiety" that is all-to-prevalent in Silicon Valley. Nobody wants to be given the "scarlet letter" of failure ("G+"!) on their resume...? Understandable. Its also understandable to be ~annoyed when the media circus feels the need to pontificate on the "family politics" of any large/insular organization. That being said, the majority of the points here don't seem to be controversial enough (on either side) to get too worked up over. At a Macro-level, G+ had a big narrative of power-accretion and increasing centrality (for several years). This is now being un-wound. Whether you want to call that: (1) Failure; (2) engineered obsolescence; or (3) success! seems to matter less than the underlying story remains the same. Where power/influence (and hence: status) was once accreting to a brand (G+) it is now dissapating. This is such a non-event, that it should just be considered like any other documentary on the Discovery Channel. It has been highly edited for our viewing/entertainment pleasure, but at the of the day...on the african savanna...life & death go on hand in hand for predator and prey...some times its ugly and messy...but it is just the nature of the 'circle of life'.