The main reason I removed it was because we could not get the server started in the morning with 4 or 5 seeding accounts and 3 or 4 players joining.
The default minimum "readies" of 4 (2 per team) was causing issues because it took 180 secs for the round to start. So being able to turn it off made my day a lot easier.
Almost all of the players wanted it gone as well. You seem to be the only player that wants it back...
I don't think it will help much with balance either.
At least I haven't seen any statistical evidence that the "ready up" was improving balance and was resulting in closer end tickets.
Our server already has a pretty good balance most of the time: thanks to the players and the settings of our balancer.
What I did notice was players going AFK (taking a toilet break or getting a drink) between rounds and it took 'for ages' to get enough "readies", which was pissing players off.
But let's see what happens when I set the minimum readies to 2 (per team) when server is above a certain population (32+). When it gets negative comments I will remove it again.