Auras were not even a very interctive mechanic. Being "on" all the time and undispelable they were never too powerful. Most Paladins would stick with one all the time, or even forget to turn it on sometimes.

I guess Blizzard is trying to get rid of less important abilities in favor of more active, powerful ones if anything, to save some UI space.

Still, I notice a overall trend of streamline the World of Warcraft experience. They removed poison ingrendients for Rogues first and with the new patch now poisons are just a "spell" which you cast on your weapon. You also can't have 2 different poison on each weapon. Daggers also now have a single speed removing the concept of "fast off-hand dagger".

At this point I can't say if this is a good or a bad thing. WoW had it's share of useless, underused abilities but on the other side, part of me cringe when I see yet another ability being cut.