I think Jungleskip and Briman are right on the money here. If the highest touted and marketed part of your attraction breaks, you don't politely sweep it under the rug and hope nobody notices. Yeti was an integral part of the story for the ride and was also a big part of the INITIAL draw and marketing of the ride, not so much anymore. Now, I don't think Everest is much thrilling, to me it's basically a tamer version of BTMR, but I still enjoy it. It's still a good ride, but it really does feel like it's missing something with the Yeti close to nonexistent now, all you can make out of him are his outline/shadow and his claw. With the lessened strobe effect I wouldn't be surprised if most people thought it was just a camera flash for an on-ride photo in that section. Long story short: Sometimes you need to make sacrifices in order to achieve greatness. Is it unfortunate that EE will probably have to close if Yeti is to be fixed? Yes, of course, but it's better to have a ride close for maintenance, than to have it run without it's main character and star. Having the Yeti down hurts the ride's theming and the overall experience (at least, to me it does).