By "already dead," what I really meant was "Buzz is doomed from a user experience point of view," not "Buzz is already a ghost town." (And as cabalamat guesses, there is probably some wishful thinking involved.)
That makes a lot more sense, but I think that Google will put the money into fixing the problems you point out. I say that not because I personally like Buzz, but because Google does seem dedicated to the Buzz service line, and they aren't stupid. They may do some dumb things at times, but they are not stupid.
Still, a lot of my complaints would need to be addressed with significant changes to the service (changing how we are notified of replies & mentions, de-coupling Reader & Buzz and perhaps Gmail & Buzz, uncluttering the UI, showing fewer strangers). I can't think of any Google product that was ever fundamentally changed on this scale. Wave would be a good example of a service that could really use a rethinking of the UI (there are at least 4 or 5 ways to dismiss a Wave: Archive, Mute, Delete, Mark as Read, Mark as Spam, for example), but it hasn't gotten it, and I am pessimistic that this will ever happen.
By "already dead," what I really meant was "Buzz is doomed from a user experience point of view," not "Buzz is already a ghost town." (And as cabalamat guesses, there is probably some wishful thinking involved.)