I've never seen the BVG listed as a benefit of the Optima card on the Amex website.
I don't believe they're dropping it from the Optima card, but hey, I've been wrong before. No offense to the people that have spoken to AMEX CSR's, but during the whole Blue BVG thing there were people posting constantly that they'd heard all sorts of things from CSR's that never ended up being true - and even though AMEX has better CSR's than most CC companies, they're still not all that knowledgeable about the card in general - my experience anyway.
Even if they do drop it on my card, I'll find another card that offers it - even if there's a $50 fee per year (like the Gold card), it's a small price to pay for $1,000 worth of the easiest price-matching ability around....not to mention the outstanding deals that can be engineered when rebates are taken into account.
Thanks to BVG, I've made my AMEX my #1 card of choice for EVERYTHING.....I'd imagine they're earning a lot more than $1K per year in merchant fees from me, so it should be worth it for them. If I had to go to the Gold card (which I believe doesn't allow for a revolving balance), then I'd ONLY use the card for BVG opportunities - that wouldn't be to their benefit, but hey, maybe I'm just atypical?