I get your point but I think a lot of people overestimate the amount of special gear they need to pursue certain activities. Sure, if you're going to be in the wilderness for days, hiking boots and outdoor clothing are a good idea. A few hours walking through the forest, you're fine wearing whatever.
Unfortunately I installed Hangout on my phone this morning and basically destroyed most of the utility GTalk had. None of my Google Talk contacts can send messages to my mobile, I can't see them in my contact list (not even people with Google accounts that don't use G+) and for the remaining ones with G+ accounts there's no presence information I can recognize.