Honestly, I think people have been over-reacting to this whole thing. First off, it seems to me that with the split, Netflix could have made some better deals with Hollywood for more content over streaming because they could have made a better business case, helping to pull Hollywood's collective head from its ass about the new paradigm of content distribution that is the internet. In fact, Netflix would be forced to beef up their streaming service as a result of the split because the two ventures exist separately and must maintain profitability separately. However, now, they are less inclined to make such an investment.
Further, they are more inclined to force you into paying more for content by splitting their availability of content between streaming and DVD, raking you over even more for money. They could easily split their content to DVD only and streaming only just to make you have purchase both services in order to obtain full access to content. How is that different from the situation now? Well, as far as I know, it's not entirely enforced now, and it would have been even harder to enforce in the case of the separate companies since both would have to live or die by their own merits. However, now, Hastings could totally game this such to force people to pay more for content access.
Also, I don't know about other people, but I have a decent internet connection. I find streaming far, far more convenient and easier to deal with than DVDs through the mail. I find myself watching more through streaming than I ever did through DVD mailings. Plus, there are no issues about damaged discs or discs being sent out of order. Further, I can watch what I want, if it's available, at the moment I get the inclination and time for it, not having to plan ahead to wait for a DVD to be mailed to me, by which time I may not have the time or the care to watch the video.
Basically, in my opinion, the entire fervor generated over this has been typical media stirring the pot to get views and page-hits, and internet-nerds being the typical petulant mental 2-year-olds that they are. No one took at least 5 seconds to just sit and think through the issue and see that it may not have been so bad. But, now that things have been reversed and Netflix has lost significant revenue due to over-reaction, everyone, Netflix and customers, are left in a worse overall state, in my opinion.
For the record, I had long ago dropped the DVD portion of my Netflix subscription because I was holding onto DVDs for weeks to months, not cycling my queue. I would just forget or neglect to run it to the mailbox to return it. After several months of noticing I'm paying Netflix for a subscription I'm hardly using because of my own laziness, it became obvious that streaming-only was a much better fit. I realize this is not the case for everyone. Some people prefer the DVDs or just don't have sufficient quality internet access to make streaming a viable option.
But, honestly, I think most of the people who were bitching had more than good enough an internet connection for streaming. By simply switching to streaming-only and stop with the bitching, they would have cut their own subscription cost in half, and they would have forced the business case for Hollywood to provide more support for streaming content. However, in my opinion, that's all out the window now, thanks to a petulant few who just didn't want to take the time to think before they screamed bloody murder.
