I agree with your statement. But counter example is weak. It combined a backpack worth of physical devices, some of which you may have already owned or not. Phone, gps, camera, music, laptop, game console, etc. oh and btw now all those devices were internet connected automatically with no wires/WiFi. The value add was compelling.

I never saw any value add at all for g+ much less a compelling one. My main point was, circles actually seemed like more work which is kind of the opposite of compelling.

The outcomes of these 2 products tells me so. After all Things like Snapchat and instagram popped up due to compelling features. Newer iPhones are struggling due to uncompelling features and would be my counter counter example.