Those circumstances does make the removal less controversial. However the better course of action for Square Enix would be to release the server software and let people host their own servers. Why destroy the whole community and prevent people from playing your game?

To sell the new game, of course.

Nothing ruins future sales like lack of demand due to past sales.

Killing of a living active game is surely bad PR, no? Badwill ruins future sales too.

You're still missing the point that Steam is "reaching into people's systems" and removing programs.

That said, it's done all the time via apt-get or windows update or other program updates. People think that this rises to a new level though, and given the fact that Steam users are younger, tech-saavy, and more vocal it's no wonder that it's raising a stink.

Is it? In Steam, one's "Library" is the list of games you have access to, including games that aren't installed on the system. Has anyone had the game silently uninstalled if they already had it on their system? If the listing is removed even if the game is installed, can the game be launched by running the executable directly?