Sadly matchplay is not popular with players, and when (as so often happens) the big names are knocked out early interest flags for spectators. The US PGA championship was once matchplay, and there were such events as the Inverness Invitational Fourballs, but they've all gone.
I have attended Matchplays at Wentworth and, unless you are lucky enough to get a press pass (as I did) and are therefore able to walk inside the ropes, it is very difficult to follow a match in its entirety, and fairly impossible to switch from one match to another, with routes from one hole to another blocked by private housing. For strokeplay it is far better from the spectator's point of view, because there are many great viewing points on a course of this gently hilly nature.
However, I think Wentworth is a very good matchplay course, because there is a way to attack every hole if you need to create a lead or catch up, yet in going for that option there is a great risk of slipping up, and short par 4s such as the 7th and 16th are cases is point.
My sadness at losing this is that the professional circuit is losing one of its last Golden Age courses. There is nothing in the south of Spain remotely comparable. What are we left with? The Open continues to be played on a links, and the Dutch Open is thankfully still usually played at Kennemer, Noordwijk or Hilversum. The German Open no longer visits Falkenstein, the Belgian Open no longer exists, the French Open has forsaken Chantilly and other old Parisian courses, the Italian Open probably won't return to Milano or Villa d'Este and the Spanish Open is very unlikely to return to Puerta de Hierro.