How can I completely remove brackets from citations in text?

You should look at ENX5, which now has the ability to use either (Author, Year) or Author (Year) so now with the other variations of citation editing can  automate the sentences:

Georg et al (1919) have shown that referencing style requests are a ever evolving complication (as reviewed in Thomson and Reuters, 2011). 

You might even beable to edit the Author (Year) option in the style to achieve Author, Year instead, but not both Author (Year) and Author, Year in the same style, without hiding the year entirely though and typing it in.