You're losing your respect for a company over the discontinuation of a single feature? I can see how this would affect the LAN party culture, but can't see how it'll break the game for anyone. It's just a different way of playing. With voice and headsets, who cares?

How can you put this down to association with Activision? Development and maintenance resources are not infinite, and you hardly ever have as much time or as many people to throw at a task as you want or need. Doubtless, someone looked at the data and decided their available resources would not be well-spent on LAN play, especially when they have Battle.net.

Sorry, online petitions don't work. They are the equivalent of saying, "yes, you're really good at this job, and you couldn't be responsible for the hit games you've already got under your belt if you weren't in the disciplined habit of thinking very hard about every decision you make ... but there are more of us, so DO WHAT WE SAY!" The day Blizzard submits to an online petition, is the day after hell freezes over.