One potential problem that I see with going back to a focus on markets is that it's difficult to predict, outside of the top 25 markets or so, which markets are going to have enough happening to justify being broken out. I think the last thing Lance wants is to have a market be "hot" for a few weeks and then go dead for months at a time. Already, in California, I find that Sacramento may not qualify to even be a breakout under the main state header, based on posting. (About the only time there's any discussion there is when CapRadio has its latest crisis.)
I have taken the advice of several here and put those forums that I care about on Watch and then made my "watched" page the bookmark in my browser. If you haven't tried that, I totally recommend it.