I dont even know why u remove maps anyway.
Because we don't want the official map list to be cluttered with all kinds of shitty maps that nobody wants to play anyway. When a new player comes into the mod, it's better if he doesn't have to sift through 20 shitty maps before he comes across the one that doesn't make our mod or map policy look unprofessional.
As for Linden, that map always had decent amounts of plays. During a certain period in EiR history maps that had decent plays were removed because they were not liked by those who had the ability to remove them...
If you would do some research in the depths of the EIR archives you would find that linden was considered for removal several times before it was finally taken out. I.e we were very hesitant about its removal because it is in fact a fine map, but it simply didn't garner enough plays. All of spartan's maps are absolute gems (at least from a visual perspective) as far as I'm concerned...