Interesting that the 17" remains very much niche. I have not exactly caved in to the 15" rMBP as yet, but I have been hands on with it, and I've also put out a feeler as to the value of my current MBP 17"
The retina display may compensate for the loss in real-estate, but I'm still sort of on the fence....So I voted 17"
I'm with ya...I used 17" MBPs solely for 7 years. I've got a 2011 17" and wasn't really in the market this year for another laptop
...until I played with the new 15" rMBP that is
I bought one in September and I'm not looking back. I'm still keeping the 17"-- and I put a Samsung 830-512gb ssd in there, expanded the RAM to 16gb...but the 15" is still my 'go to' machine these days. I'm happy with everything about it. Good luck with your decision...mine was tough as well. As much as I hated to see the big ones go, the performance, display and I/O options on the new rMBP are more than enough to sway me permenantly to the 'retina' camp. I'm no longer missing the 17" option
For those that consider the 17" too heavy, that's silly...even discontinued, for what it offers vs. the competition, it's a svelte package. The weight and size never bothered me as it's definitely a viable desktop replacement. As well, if you didn't update last year, there are some excellent choices in the refurb market at apple.com or on eBay...again with the option to slap an ssd inside, extra RAM, even a secondary HDD in the optical bay slot still makes this an excellent choice if you need the 'power and real estate' of the 17"
We also have a pair of 11" Airs. One for my wife and one for myself. We do a lot of traveling around the state of Alaska and it's the only way to go when you're on the run
In the poll, I selected the 15" model as I believe with the retina screen it's the optimal design for both casual and power usage.
Jer