That's different though... My OPINION on this type of thing is 'you can't miss what you never had' - the opposite holds true as well. Before we got a DVR, yes, we had to watch commercials (or run to the bathroom or do something during those breaks). After we got a DVR, we could manually skip commercials. Later, with Autohop, you just sit your lazy ass on the sofa and let the DVR skip them for you !!
Take any of those away and it's a step backwards.
For me, I don't watch that much big-4 network programming so I didn't get much use from Autohop anyway. My wife and kids may have used it but if it didn't work (or stopped working), they just shrugged their shoulders and, ready.... wait for it....
they pushed the 30-second skip button a few times !! The most relieving part is, their life wasn't impacted negatively in any way with them having to do this.