I've been around this site for a long time now, and somehow I've managed to stay out of this argument. (Maybe because I don't post very often) But I completely agree...
The one thought that I have had about the whole thing is something that I haven't heard brought up yet. I think the wand really added a lot of height to SSE. It really made the entire structure much more vertical. I have a feeling once the entire wand/support are down, SSE may just "look shorter than I remember" Those letters added a number of feet to the top of SSE...