And here's the worst of it: forcing Google+ onto Youtube users will do practically nothing to help encourage more "meaningful" conversations. In the same way anonymous users were creating 'fake' Youtube accounts to post the offensive or inflammatory comments Google is fighting against, contemporary trolls will simply create fake Google+ accounts, complete with false, inconspicuous names, to post the same garbage they've gotten used to posting in the past. So it's essentially a useless measure. Worse, it'll cause Google+ to become littered with empty, unused accounts, which are far more likely to hurt the G+ experience than to help it in any way.
In the end, if Google had truly followed its own self-proclaimed motivations, it would have implemented the video comment integration from Google+ into Youtube, and not the other way around. The way it stands, the move is nothing more than a very poorly-conceived pitch to promote its relatively unsuccessful social network. And, most importantly, it comes to the detriment of its users' privacy and trust.
And so, for Gundotra's statement, I call BS.
Well done, Google. You've managed to disappoint us all.