I'm not saying you're wrong, but I don't see how it is necessary to support a standard that is 13 years old. If the computer is only capable of running OpenGL 1.2, i'd be shocked if it got more than 10 FPS. Just because you can make something run, doesn't mean it will run well. The play experience will be sub par.
I'm not an affected victim of this change, but I speak for the people still stuck on 1.x.
Some people can actually stand playing MC under 10 fps (I could); its better than nothing.