Why? What did the world lose with Gawker?

I don't agree with Wired that all of those were super important but some of them clearly are. For example, Buzzfeed removing articles that were critical of their advertisers, the first exposes of the Silk Road and The Armory, evidence of Greg Hardy abusing his girlfriend, etc.

Wasn't that Bethesda? Somewhat important I guess, (not "we should be able to freely out gays" important) but where was Gawker during GamerGate?

> the first exposes of the Silk Road and The Armory

That helped bring it down? Maybe.. But how much investigation did it require. And how harmful was silk road? I'll admit though, if this was the first expose, it was good.

> evidence of Greg Hardy abusing his girlfriend

I'm a little concerned here, the evidence came from "court documents" - so a real court was exchanged for the court of public opinion? Was actual illegality (in court) discovered?

Regarding Bethesda, the linked Wired article indicates Gawker exposed both Bethesda and Buzzfeed for removing negative articles at different times.

I'm not necessarily anti-Silk Road but exposing it is still worthwhile investigative journalism

See my response to the parent comment if you want some actual examples instead of just cherry picking the one you don't like that they famously were shut down for.