I feel Gopher really puts the problems with the new system out very well and very calmly. While I don't feel the new system is quite as bad as people say, I do see his points and really agree with his thoughts on how it affects the smaller content providers (and content providers in general).
In a way it reminds me of Windows 8. See, the main overriding goal with Windows 8 was to get people(sometimes forcibly) into the store. The main goal of this move by Google is to get people(forcibly) onto and using Google+. In neither case was that their only goal, but clearly the overriding one.