So? Do you think people will be upset if they copy and paste a link and it has http:// put at the start?

"upset" is not the consideration. There is potential for functional confusion, with a basic function, where none existed before.

"...where none existed before."

For you maybe, but part of the reason they're removing it is because many average users had no idea what it was for.

The functional confusion stems from the modification of basic copy/paste, not from the removal of data from the address bar.

Oh -- still, that doesn't seem like something that can't be fixed with minor tweaking.

code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=41609

is an example where there's a hard problem that materializes out of thin air as a result.

Read the thread... doesn't seem like a 'hard' problem, rather, it just seems like there are multiple ways to handle the issue and they haven't decided on which one yet.

WYSIWYG copy/paste is binary. It either is, or not. You can't tweak binary.

WYSIWYG copy/paste is bound to break at some point. But it should be pushed as far as possible to complex tasks not floated into the most abstract action - copying an address. The issue is conceptual, it is unrelated to implementation.