@Food: not really. The MO count is.
@SB: many of the removed MOs won't have that much impact in the game. I'll explain the whys and whichs:
- Jewerly: crafting points. This MO totally killed the purpose of crafting points as a whole. Obvious pick.
- Weapon: melee procs (4) - too random to be mystic orbs.
- Weapon: health / mana on striking / max damage (3) - these stats do not fit to the leveling progression as they are flat amounts.
- Weapon: stun attack (1) - completely useless and misleading.
- Weapon: IAS / FCR (2) - not really used.
- Armor: hp/mana when struck (2) - similar to weapon case, flat amounts don't fit leveling progression
- Armor: individual resistances (4) - these promoted gear checking in certain uberquests (psn belial, or tri-ele against quov tsin, tal rasha)
- Armor: fallen one / skeleton reanimates (2) - for the reason you mentioned
- Armor: curse length reduction (1) - useless
- Armor: teleport when struck (1) - too random, similar to weapon orbs
- Any: damage reduced (1) - same logic here for flat amounts.
- Any: flat stats (4) - their only real purpose was to quickly obtain a certain stat without respeccing. Not that useful
- Any: elemental pierces (4) - these completely fucked up the game right the day they were born. Bye bye!
Note that some of these mystic orbs will still be obtainable from monster drops (which also gives these drops a purpose).
As for 1x1 items, those are pretty much test items that contain all charm stats, to save up space. Yes, TEST items that won't make it into the game.