You could drop any two or six or eight of the vast majority of channels DirecTV carries and "not get that many calls" ... that doesn't mean they're not worthwhile. I, personally, couldn't care about 80% of what is carried. And that's pretty normal. Most people only watch a very small percentage of the channels/programs offered. But it's the height of ego to assume that that channels YOU like are the only "important" ones. Granted, they may be the only ones important to YOU but as DirecTV claims to be the "sports leader" channels like Universal Sports, which offers LOTS of exclusive coverage of Olympic sports that can't be found elsewhere, and Versus, which has also exclusive, niche programming seem like a no brainer.
For us, Universal Sports is a make it or break it channel. If Dish offers it, we WILL switch.
You know, I would never, and will never, watch the BYU channel, but I know plenty of Mormons (outside Utah) who signed up for DirecTV just because the satellite provider carried it. I don't think it's worth MY time to get on a forum and complain about DirecTV carrying it just because I don't watch.