I agree with your perspective - for me Signal is yet another (more secure) internet messaging app on my phone, and I'm happy that way. I wouldn't want it to have anything to do with SMS, no more than I want FB messenger to start handling my SMS (which it does offer at installation time). Plus, having used Signal since the TextSecure days, I saw the SMS feature the same way the announcement seems to characterize it: as old tech debt waiting to get dropped. After all, I don't think Signal for iOS ever had SMS ability.

And to your main point, I hadn't even considered before seeing this comment thread that anybody felt differently, let alone so strongly. Really illustrates how differently people think about the same app.