You claim they shipped a version without the stuff people loved, but Speed Dial was one of the most popular features in the old Opera. Speed Dial is one of the features that define Opera.
Their core business was making browsers in general. Being small isn't that much of an advantage anymore. They can now sell something that works reasonably well on most modern hardware.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Features_of_the_Opera_web_brows...
Doesn't really matter, though. Doesn't change the fact that it's a signature Opera feature.