I was not aware there was a discussion about whether to remove the Leaderboards or not until now. (Considering I was very new to the Forums while that discussion was taking place) I think one of the suggestions from what I read in the link Ppowersteef posted, was to make a dedicated thread for it with a poll in this Forum section so more TCF users could weigh in their input about the Leaderboards with more details as well who don't know about this discussion. Since creating a thread for it will bring it more visibility.
I like this!
Then we simply weren't notified that it was until now. I'm sure you can see how that can cause controversy. So the only question left is when are you going to remove the leaderboards.
Probably because its really not that big of a deal, and in reality, is a trivial and unimportant element of the forum. It was never a high priority for dealing with, or keeping people posted on the most "Up to date status!"