I use my superdrive everyday. As a professional audio engineer, I rip CD's at the highest quality possible (better than downloading from iTunes or Amazon. Superior by far). I also still purchase physical CDs, weird, I know.
However, I do see the logic by removing it. You can always pickup an external superdrive, like for the MBA. If it were somehow able to be connected via firewire, that would be pretty rad, but it would be another thing to carry around, another cable to lose, etc. Lack of opti drive adds a world of possibilities of course, maybe add some ports on the right side for additional USB/FW, bigger battery, etc. I'd rather keep my opti bay IN the computer, and rock my external HDD(s)
I love my optical drive, and yes, I think the future is going to be solid-state media, but that day is not now and it's not in the next 3-4 years, so for right now I'm A-OK with my opti drive.
Just my opinion, of course =)