1) Karma is by no means a dead cert for inclusion
2) The system to be deployed should Karma survive to completion is also undecided
3) If Karma is included it can be disabled with no obvious performance impact
4) Karma is not "bad" because it "hides" posts ... the very idea of Karma is that it allows users to give feedback on other users. If applied properly it downgrades timewasters allowing those who choose to ignore posts made by said users.
I think it's clear one or two people don't like the idea of Karma, that's fine, message understood. But please, don't degrade discussion about it just because you (as in all those who don't want to see Karma included) don't much like it.