The central premise, that Google+ suffered for lack of brand pages seems flawed to me. I suspect that like me, people use Google+ to read posts by other people,

The central premise, that Google+ suffered for lack of brand pages seems flawed to me. I suspect that like me, people use Google+ to read posts by other people, not to be advertised to. Google+ has users making interesting posts in abundance. As an example, see how many Google+ posts have been shared on HN versus Facebook posts. What Google+ has given me is what I wanted all along - asymetrical following without the limitations of Twitter and without the need for someone to create a brand page before following them becomes acceptible.