I don't know why they announced the one and not the other.
I believe the reason as to why PLUS1 wasn't announced here earlier was to give an advantage to their own community (ADVFN).
If they wanted to give an advantage to their own community an airdrop would have been more effective than trying to turn their subscribers into miners. It hasn't really worked, if you read the threads over there.
There were a few airdrops.
I, myself, gave a few coins out as I was one of the early adopters when they announced the coin on their forum.
But yes, I agree with what you are trying to state here, they really need a better marketing strategy, or maybe another round of airdrops (surely they have a few coins to spare).