I think it does deserve a thread, as it's a specific change that wasn't really well explained, nor made 'optional' like most are. I fail to see the reasoning for this removal, personally. As indeed, they only butcher skeletons which gives bones and takes what? a game year or two to decompose? You can argue due to the sheer volume of bodies from sieges that its unbalanced - but have you tried breeding 20 animals? You'll get 200+ before a single sentient skeleton would be viable, and those animals give meat, fat, and other valuable materials on top of bones.
Further, the main concern I've encountered with this change is the bloody clutter! My entire stockpile is full of sentient corpses that I can do nothing with except wait for them to entirely rot. Leaving them outside is fine, but quite ugly - especially as I have something silly like 300+ corpses outside my entrance now, and this is only after a two year period of fighting...
An alternative to it, I would argue, is if possible, flag sentient 'skeletons' (or corpses) as vermin remains so it can be used in the 'create flux from vermin remains' in slaughterhouses. 1 flux per corpse is nothing, and will give a way to remove these bodies without making massive stockpiles or leaving corpses everywhere, and won't really need anything changed in game bar a single flag (if it's possible of course).
A second idea, would be simply to speed up the degrading rate of sentient races and their corpses (if this is viable). It would be similar to now, but remove the issue of corpses everywhere for 1-6 game years before they vanish.
I feel this is a valid point of discussion for its own thread as this change indeed does cause a good few problems that need (in my opinion) to be resolved in some manner.