It's not a rumour, it's confirmed.
As has been explained, the reason for it isn't to "fix" anything, it's to give higher quality video. If you want to view someone without them viewing your camera, then unplug/deselect your camera.
Using an old version of Messenger is NOT recommended and may end up causing further problems, or incompatibilities when trying to use features with people on the latest version.
The easiest way is to just accept that it's gone and get used to it and enjoy the higher quality video that WLM 2011 will bring....longing after a removed feature won't get you anywhere