I think the L-bar is certainly better than nothing. It's
most of a local forecast, but still satisfies the programming gurus by allowing the longform programming to continue. However, maybe someone thinks it's "too distracting" for the viewer who's looking for entertainment rather than weather forecasts (TWC's new direction, obviously), so that's why they might start phasing out the L-bar and using the LDL only during the 8's, and... no weather information at all at other times.
Not even the lower-third, which has even more information, but just the basic LDL.
And if you don't have an Intellistar... just forget anything local altogether!