Comment 5 for bug 772954

What is least disruptive is whatever requires least work afterwards.

Usually, this is indeed whatever most closely matches the system's current behavior. Because usually, the system's current behavior has strongly influenced the data that needs migrating.

This is a highly unusual case where that hasn't happened. Where I could tell their intent at all, people have more often treated "Opinion" as if it were an open status than a closed one, *despite* Launchpad treating it as a closed one. (This may not have been obvious because I omitted several examples for brevity.)

So it doesn't actually matter what "Opinion" is equivalent to as far as the system is concerned. It would matter if people had most often used it that way, but they haven't. If it was retired tomorrow, there would be less work afterwards -- both for bug reporters and for developers -- if it was migrated to an open status than a closed one.

Having said that, my sample was just from Unity bug reports. A fairer guide would come from sampling "Opinion" reports across all of Launchpad, not just Unity. And the balance might shift if some people switch to treating it as a closed status before it is abolished.