Those narrowly defined species might be the only thing keeping other species alive either directly (eg, pollinators) or indirectly (eg, biome creators). When individual species disappear, we often lose much more as collateral damage.
This seems to the basic understanding most people have. At school, they teach you about food webs and how breaking one link can ruin everything. That's an enticing idea but is it really true? I'm sure there have been some known cases or it wouldn't be in the text books, but is it common enough to get worried about every obscure species?
Planting seeds of doubt about established science are we? I thought HN was pro-science and environment??
Big difference between science and popular emotion-fueled mischaracterizations of science.
How about vanilla going extinct in the wild? Any real vanilla you have ever had was likely hand pollinated (and probably not from Mexico) because the bee that pollinates the vanilla orchid is thought to be extinct and the orchid that depended on it is now on its way out.[0]