you can phrase it in a difficult way or you can phrase it in a simple way.
That siri/GNow can't do it the "difficult" way doesn't matter.
The point is being able to speak instead of tap.
so intead of
do
and it's fine. TBH this is all google needs.
'Remind me to pick up lettuce when I leave work'
Some days I might leave from work late, or early, having the reminders be location based rather than, or in addition to, time based allows for such variation. The biggest problem I had in the past with reminders was trying to figure out when was the best time to set them to go off at.
'I need directions to the closest grocery store'
That sort of thing is useful if you are in a strange place. If I told my phone to point me to publix out here in Naperville, it would tell me that the nearest one was in Chicago, 35 miles away.
'Send message to Kim that I'll be home soon'
Your wording is better here. Send text to Kim is more likely, the only reason why 'send message' would be more appropriate is if for some reason you weren't sure if you had their number or email address, but in this specific context, you would know.
'I want to go see 'Brave'
This is intentionally vague, but I think that there is some value in the vagueness. Let's say I asked it 'When is the next showing of Brave?' And it would look up the showtimes at the closest theaters, and advise you which was the next showing based on the current time and location. Knowing that the next showing is in 5 minutes does you no good if you haven't left the house yet. Knowing that there is a showing in 45 minutes at the theater closest to you is useful.
All that said, I don't have Siri or Google Now. And until I get a new phone (it will be an iPhone, I am pretty well locked into the ecosystem and actually prefer the UI) I won't have them, but if the two bigs are pushing the issue and improving matters, getting us closer to real, foolproof natural language dictation that will make our lives easier without having to work around the constraints of the system, then I am all for it.