I also don't love installing tons of plugins when we only need one. But Jetpack has so many great things in it that in many cases we use it anyways.

Re Google+ integration: Yoast's WordPress SEO plugin has this built in so if you're running it, make sure you enter your Google+ URL in your Profile, and you're good.

Re shortcode embeds: I really don't understand why this needs its own whole plugin when WordPress supports oEmbed. I mean, what's easier than just pasting the URL of the piece of media you want to share in the editor (ok, and then unlinking it so it's not an active link, but still!)?