I get where Abby and Alex are coming from in wanting AC to lose the Animus since the present day storylines have been inconsequential/bad for awhile. Black Flag had a nice, fun, side story feel to it after the Desmond storyline, but they haven't done much interesting with it since. However, the sci-fi elements have always been just as appealing to me as the historical settings so I guess I'd rather they put more effort into writing an interesting present day story instead of just giving up and dropping the Animus completely.
I still like the Animus conceit but I agree that the modern day story has lacked any kind of direction since they killed off Desmond. If you read through all of Layla's emails and blog posts I think they have the makings of a good character there, I just hope they evolve her more in Odyssey.
Jedted's comments