[asveikau]

It has the vibe of a corporate company doing post hoc justification for a decision they already made.

And then the commenter provides a parallel to how willing they were to put money into Google+, i.e. they appear willing to put money into a relatively low usage product when they feel like doing it.

[dredmorbius]

G+ plausibly challenged an existential threat: Facebook.

Reader had no such strategic leverage, at least to Google execs' understanding.