Yes, it was removed. The idea behind it was indeed to address FOV issues, but it clearly was the worst idea during the whole development. Due to the distortion it introduces it can potentially make people sick.
There are many more ways to address FOV issues, ranging from perfect to OK. Please check the Essential Game Hints in the help for details if you haven’t done so already.
One particularly easy new way is setting your game to a 4:3 display mode (like 1280×960 for example), which is now possible and then zoom out a few notches (ImageZoom). In many games that is a nice way to address FOV issues quickly. Not 100% perfect but definitely better than the logarithmic distortion.