that's pretty hyperbolic. i would guess some very large percent (80%? 90%?) of gmail users have never once even thought about the feature.

it'll lose them some tech folk, but it's hardly "suicide".

Their percentage of users who care about this feature is almost certainly fractions of a percentage.

Doubtful. It will reduce some user count, but most people won’t care. And they probably spend more supporting the feature than they gain from the Gmail users that actually use the feature.