User blog comment:DaNASCAT/Technical Update: January 6, 2016/@comment-1474707-20160110234717/@comment-452-20160127174503

"Why was it so urgent that Top had to be immediately removed without a replacement?"

Answer: So that when it was added to Special:Insights a few weeks later, people would think it was a new feature and not simply a repackaged existing feature.

From the reactions to Special:Insights/popular, it's clear that many people were unaware of Special:Top/popular - but it's disingenuous to give the false impression Special:Insights/popular is something new.