I think it's great it's gone (whenever I tried using them I've always screwed it up and delivered the wrong /setmsg), however it should be kept for group convo (#t, #c). Fleet combat can be hugely confusing, and FC sometimes have to indicate the target over and over again.
It's gonna be a pain through manual typing when you already use a lot of the keyboard keys for TS'ing. Snubs are different, autothrust and juggle mouse while typing, but that simply can't be done on caps.
I predict this will happen:
People will begin to bluntly ignore the orange message and just type "Engaging".
The amount of people who silently engage will rise.
On the bright side:
Characters will get more depth in the way they talk.