I think there's an issue here that they've changed the 'sleep' behaviour. They've changed the name as well although I'm not sure that's significant.

Before firmware 2, when the PS4 was asleep it always showed the yellow LED strip. When I got up this AM it looked like my PS4 had shut itself down entirely due to some sort of failure - the strip was unlit. But I tapped the 'on/playstation' button on the controller and up it came no problem.

I suspect they've put in some kind of 'deep sleep' mode that shuts the light off entirely, and haven't bothered telling anyone that it's changed. I've only read some of the reports, but are people actually trying to switch them back on, or are they just assuming something has gone wrong and pulling the power cable?

It could also be that some of the time the 'deep sleep' mode is causing the console to somehow lose bluetooth connectivity to the pad, so the pad can't switch the PS4 back on. It's be easy to forget there's a power button on the front, because in normal use there's absolutely no reason to use it.

Basically, are we sure the PS4's are actually shutting themselves off, or does it just look like it?

IIRC they've already published the list of PS+ games for Nov & Dec on the official blog, so if it's not there it won't be on PS+ this side of Christmas.