It was a Cirrus marketing gimmick, for which Cirrus owners are paying with a load of fuel, and cockpit noise level, for ever......
You may think this and I would not disagree however if you read Flying this month they asked pilots exactly this question. As you might guess with such a large circulation they had a pretty good response - 70 something percent (I cant remember the exact figure without finding my copy) wanted single lever. To be fair what they really want is FADEC which they will get very soon (and Diamond already have) but never the less be it marketing hype and / or ignorance on the part of pilots it is what people want - it is perhaps again an example of Cirrus having got it right (albeit perhaps for the wrong reasons). As I said earlier it is no good giving people something they dont want and telling them its good for them unless you want to go the way of Mooney - which does no one any good.
It was a good day for flying - 2.5 each way so cant be bad.