Chrome's position was "use an extension for this", but then users have to risk privacy by installing a third-party extension. What harm does having the option tucked somewhere in advanced settings do?
Every release they probably have to test that it still works.
Not that I would ever justify removing something like this - it's clear that for a percentage of the userbase, this is necessary for them to browse. But I can see a product manager trying to cut "fat" if they see that 0.01% of people use it.
