Yes, it could have. If Google hadn't managed to do every possible thing wrong with it. Seriously, the sheer number of bone-headed catastrophic screw ups involved in G+ is impressive.
The idea that Google could build a unified social network across all their platforms was good. The idea that Google could also make a Facebook-clone was good.
Every other idea they put into G+ after that was awful.
I think the design of G+ is gorgeous. I keep referring to it again and again. And as you say, the vision was great, but the execution of forcing everyone on it was odd.
