While you're right that the average park visitor probably doesn't even remember Horizons, there is enough of a consistent sense on the forums that Horizons is greatly missed to make that an important viewpoint. You could easily make the point that ALL of the folks who frequent online fan forums are such a small percentage of Disney park visitors that they don't really matter. But I feel that there are enough of us who know enough and care enough about the parks and are vocal about our feelings and disappointments to make up an important part of the park storming populace. And there are so many online folks that have mentioned a love for Horizons that I think it's a valid point of view that Disney made a bad move there by destroying it.
And you are in a very small minority of folks who like Mission: Space better than Horizons.
I understand what your saying, however, I'm not convinced that ending Horizons was a bad move. It really had lost a lot of ridership over the years and that was mostly those of us that liked it and supported it, but, it felt sad to me to go in there and just walk up to the front of the line (no, not a FP in sight) after feeling how vibrant it once was. The very core of dark rides had changed in the thoughts of the public and it wasn't any draw at all. So, if one had to make the decision to close it and replace it with a new experience and, for TDC, new money, it was a no brainer. It was once great, it had run it's course and needed to be replaced.
To your point, whether or not Mission: Space was the right move, I guess that's up to individual opinions. I do think that had it not had that terrible bad luck of the two deaths, it would have stayed very popular and been a great addition. However, none of us really know that for sure. I do know that it even scared me and delayed me from riding it for a few years because it's intensity probably did contribute to the unfortunate deaths. But, a bigger reason came from the fact that through the years, WDW had attained a reputation of nice, safe family rides. People ignored the warning signs and merely thought it was just the lawyers covering butt, and rode it anyway. Immediately, those with inner ear problems, known or unknown, experienced massive motion sickness and in the two isolated instances, death cause by a preexisting condition, again either known or unknown.
Whatever the reason is, Horizons is gone and it isn't coming back. All the continued mourning isn't going to change anything and it just sounds like an inability to move on. Good or bad, it is reality. The other part that I have a somewhat stubborn outlook on is that I still feel that one cannot rely on memory to tell the real story of how much better it was. We all tend to just remember the parts that were awesome. For me it was the smell of the oranges, that and the coupling of whatever the current theme of CoP was at the time that connected the two, be it, Now is the Best Time or Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow. I will get beat up for this, but, I always, from day one, thought the "choice" endings stunk to high heaven.
