Interesting and I can see how that would be annoying. I would point out though that it seems to me that google circles will soon or at least someday be either

Interesting and I can see how that would be annoying. I would point out though that it seems to me that google circles will soon or at least someday be either the main way or the only way to express an access control list on another google product. For example, when you want to share a doc on google docs, or a picture on picasa, or what-have-you. In as much as your google account is an identity thing, and google circles are groups of identities, this ACL-checking function of google products isn't going away. Personally I think the integration is a good thing, for example now that youtube is integrated with google circles, when I comment on a video on youtube I can hide that comment from the public and only show it to my friends or family or colleagues. I assume that some day I'll be able to mail a circle from gmail and stuff like that.