The article is missing an important detail. They didn't just remove the ability to reload. They replaced it with the ability to go back to the top of your stream without reloading everything. (on g+ at least)
Since google+ already loads new posts automatically. In practice this will do almost the same as before, but with less waiting on the client side. Sounds like a smart design choice imo.
If that's the case, that makes sense on google+. On GMail though, I personally am used to clicking on the logo to refresh my inbox. Now I have to click on the navigation tab "inbox" to do that. It isn't a big deal really, but I find it odd to completely rip out the previous action only to replace it with no action at all.
Since google+ already loads new posts automatically. In practice this will do almost the same as before, but with less waiting on the client side. Sounds like a smart design choice imo.