Except Google+'s non-writeability is more a symptom of Google's crappy API support than anything else. They built a product, and didn't really put any time in to make it a service or a platform.
I think it's apathy rather than malice on Google+'s part.
Indeed, Google Maps is just about the only polished public API they have. It's really unfortunate that Google is so unfriendly to developers regarding their products.
Google derives their primary revenue from advertising. APIs allow developers to sidestep advertising in displaying Google's content. Ergo, it is not in Google's best interest to allow easy free access to their content, via an API or otherwise, in a place where they cannot control how the content is displayed.
I don't completely agree with this reasoning but I can see why they don't just throw build APIs everywhere.
I think it's apathy rather than malice on Google+'s part.