Dick’s role in A Lonely Place of Dying is so massively important and good, which is why it’s so sad when it gets overlooked or erased.
In the 1990 collected edition, Dennis O’Neil (Batman editor of the time) talked about why he wanted Dick to be a central part of the third Robin’s origin. Dick needed to be there to show several key points:
Tim and Dick are deeply connected to each other (their childhood meeting at the circus, which links old Robin to new)
Dick approves of and endorses Tim as Robin (he directly tells Bruce that Tim should be Robin)
Dick cannot return to being Robin, no matter how much he tries, because he has his own new role now (this is shown through the failed Batman/Nightwing teamup against Two Face)
O’Neil’s goal was to preemptively combat any potential concerns or complaints readers might have about a third Robin. He had overseen the updates to Jason’s origins and had observed the mistakes they made and which complaints they received. In particular, the new origin for Jason 2.0 gave Dick little control over leaving the Robin mantle or passing it down. This bolstered fan complaints that Jason was usurping Dick, a feeling that O’Neil did not want to continue with the third Robin.
These considerations were the foundation of how Marv Wolfman constructed Tim’s origin and character: someone with an almost fated connection to Dick, who idealized Dick and was passionate about what the dynamic duo meant as symbols, and who explicitly had Dick’s blessing to be Robin.
So, when people remove Dick from Tim’s origin, they are removing a core part of Tim’s character and how he got the mantle.
