I've been resistant to going back to the only-forum-supplied-avatars thing for a few reasons:
1) I'm very slow about updating the avatar supply.
2) It seemed like a nice perk to give our regular forum folks (post often enough, get yourself a visual signature)
3) I hate taking away privileges that I've given -- and, while this one was something I sorta "accidentally" left enabled, I'm a firm believer that I should eat my own mistakes.