I once heard a Google employee mention this himself, specifically after the Google+ breach coverup came to light: "Honestly, I don't think it was the right thing to do but it definitely was the better business move. And announcing the deprecation today definitely tries to cover it up. We just have a better PR team."

I'm not claiming one is better than the other and that's not a discussion to have today, but I agree with him 100%. Google, after all, invented the business does have a hell of a PR team.