I think the issue is more that it was not very discoverable. A bet the vast majority of non-tech users didn't even know it existed and perhaps accidentally activated 3D touch much to their confusion.

Removing it simplifies the hardware, avoids accidental activations and is less maintenance work.

I still miss 3D Touch :(. I am happy that Macs still have Force Touch, even though Force Touch and haptic feedback are criminally underused. There are so many useful applications, e.g. OmniGraffle gives subtle haptic feedback when dragging an object and it aligns with another object. It's such a nice feature that other apps could learn from.