ode Good question. I don't know if it ever goes away because of what it has done to the spreads at the upper and lower ends of the loft ranges. In a vacuum, I wouldn't care much if my 27 degree club says 5 or 6 or 7. But when it says 7, and so they use 5 or 6 degree spreads from say 8 iron on down, then I care about loft jacking.
Unless they finally break down and offer 2 gap wedges, like Titleist has done with their SGI irons. Even then, they have 5 & then 6 degree spreads starting at 9 iron.
So overall I think it's dumb. There is nothing stopping them from calling their hot 27 degree, 37.5" iron a 5 iron, except for the distance race. When they decide to call it a 7 iron, it messes with the set makeup. And at this point, there's no going back, so maybe you'll see the term die out.