After all, it was another "irritating" system that player had to keep eye on(sometimes noobs just forget it and died). It gave a feeling player must rush the game through. I for example hate games that has a time limit. I like to have atmosphere without any rush. Of course there are can be moments when there's that time, but not all the time.
What it perhaps gave was some sort of "atmosphere". However, even that was ruined because it was unrealistic as there are three stomachs. Why do you think by removing one system "waters" the whole campaign? What made it great?