Look at how fast the new + loads, and open up the sources tab in your browser and look at how the JS is split. The way Closure Compiler is slicing up the app into tons of tiny individually loadable, optimized and minified chunks is very awesome. Google+ photos on the Web works the same way.
Check out his G+ posts to see all the work the G+ team has been doing.
I'm more wondering if there's some goal they're all working towards... what's their mission as a team? What's the morale like? Is there a lot of pressure on them to perform better?
You say: "everything about google+ seems forced."
I say: less forced than twitter, on g+ I can write my post just the way I want anf share with just the people I want.
Less forced than facebook: on g+ I can (and I do have) multiple personas, keeping my friends away from being bothered by my taste in music, future employers from being bothered by what I do on my spare time etc. Hint: nothing illegal, I would not trust it to protect me against a police investigation, but for the majority of us (I hope) we don't need that.
Of course I'm also a paranoid who wouldn't use any social media remotely tied to real life anyway.
Ads funds everything else that Google does. That is where the top engineers are working.