From my perspective it's not that I believe they'll put this stuff back in (in this coming generation at least) but rather that I simply don't trust them not to pull other bullshit later. In addition I think they lost the right to my money when they attempted to force a loss of my right of ownership. Maybe over the course of a few years and good behavior they can win me over, not entirely unlikely, but for now I'll be happy sticking to the other systems and my PC.
This strikes me as completely reasonable.
Timer has nothing to do with it... which I stated earlier. I'm not speculating on HOW the online-check-in is removed AT ALL. So don't put words in my mouth. I'm commenting on how he continues to SPIN what Marc Whitten said about the Day 1 patch enabling you to play your games OFFLINE.
So, uh, what exactly is your issue here? I'm kind of lost. I thought you believed that the patch will just set some timer to infinity, ready for them to switch back to 24 hours at some later date. But actually you just think the fact that there's a day one patch to remove DRM is a smoking gun that they'll reactivate it at some later date? I don't see the logical implication here but I guess you're welcome to believe that.