MY personal opinion is very 50-50! I like both styles for different reasons. D: As a GM, it IS easier quick view over a thread and find certain posts when I can see the avatars. ..Of course, I could also just look at the User Names too, but the avatars definitely stand out better.
But, I also like how without them, it kinda puts you "in the scene" better. All you see is the posts and the character pics/text. You don't have all the outside interference or mistakenly mix up character and player.
And it would be flat out sucky to take out bbcode and char pics. XD No one is eeeever gonna do that!
What I DON'T like for sure, is having huge annoying siggies all in the way, though. And since you can still see siggies in the OOC areas, you still get the custom and advertising goodness from them, without having big text and pics in the way when you're trying to scroll and read IC posts. D:
Right now, there IS options in your UserCP to hide siggies/avvies. But it'll do it on the WHOLE board. :/ We'd need options for hiding them in specific forums, but there's no way to do that yet.
So.. I am all for keeping just the Names & Avatars, and removing all the extra stuff, like the siggy and post count data. We'd have the avvies for easy recognition, but still get rid of the eyesore clutter that detracts from the roleplay posts. o__o