It might be true in the general case, but Google did make a significant effort to require real names on Google+ (and by extension youtube / gmail). It didn't affect the large majority, but you can find some people it did affect. Google cared in some cases.
I have way more than 1 Google account, and I've had no issues with it at all. What evidence do you have to support your claim that Google is not happy with people having multiple accounts? Because the variety of ways Google helps you have multiple accounts is pretty strong evidence they are OK with this.
> Google did make a significant effort to require real names on Google+ (and by extension youtube / gmail).
Your "by extension" is false. YouTube never had the real names push like G+/gmail did. My account with a real name has always and continues to show a completely different pseudonym on YouTube, which was one of the options Google provided.
Youtube and Google+ have merged (in case you didn't miss the large outrage over that). It was after Google softened its enforcement a bit, and the enforcement was never good.
I also have multiple google accounts and had no troubles, but we're just anecdotes, we're not everyone. The few cases where it did happen were well publicized: http://gizmodo.com/5830463/if-you-use-a-fake-name-on-google%...
The fact that Google+ and Youtube accounts have been merged is common knowledge at this point.
Sure, the people probably did click "Update my details", but you can't expect regular users to read everything and google's actions sorta "sets you up for failure" in terms of identity.
Your argument that "I had no trouble so it's okay" is a bad one because it's an anecdote.
Your "evidence" that they help you manage multiple accounts is a good point. What I really meant is "Google has tried to prevent you from having false identities". Multiple accounts supports e.g. having a company Google Apps account and a personal account, or having a school account and personal, etc. Places where you have one identity and switch between multiple accounts.
Choo Choo! Here comes the BULLSHIT TRAIN. All aboard!
For what it's worth I'm pretty sure the change was you, not Google. Google's business model hasn't changed. They are still an ad reseller, just like they always have been. They still don't sell your data, just like they never have.
Automatic account merging still doesn't happen, just like it never did. Google didn't link your friends accounts together, your friend did. And if you for some reason really, really want a different account for youtube and gmail, Google is perfectly happy with you doing exactly that. And there's somewhat reasonable multi-user support to help you do exactly that. And chrome's multi-profile support allows for even stronger walls between accounts. In the particular case of youtube they even let you use a different identity for youtube from the rest of Google, your "gangstakilla999" friend just didn't choose that option when asked when he was merging accounts.