I need it. I use it all the time. I understand why other users may not care or may not need it at all, but I think it should still be there in a Pro/workstation machine (which is supposed to provide you all the I/O you need). Do you have any idea how much "pro" (and other) software I have that installs off of optical discs?
I wouldn't mind if it's a BTO option or something, but I'll be pretty mad/frustrated (but not necessarily surprised) if Apple doesn't include it. You know, because Apple seems to have such a great idea of what I do and don't need (that's sarcasm).
I wish they'd make it a blu-ray drive too, but I know that's not going to happen.
I also realize that I can add an external optical drive. But that's stupid to me when an internal bay is already there, and when I've already got a ton of other external peripherals. There's room in the box. It costs Apple maybe a couple dollars to put it in. The Mac Pro is not an iPhone- I don't need my machine to be small and constantly shrinking from iteration to iteration. I don't see any benefit to removing it.