User blog comment:Dopp/New Profile Design Now Live Across All Wikis/@comment-1393830-20110818235119/@comment-1656630-20110819162704

@Watts: it was removed because the in the Wikia skin, the best place for an avatar upload area is where the avatar will appear.

Since Monobook doesn't really use avatars, it's questionable whether this is a major issue.