Hell, they had to demolish Vulcans in that reboot. They are now an "endangered species".
I had to laugh at this person when he seemed to be upset that they had completely redone the "Wrath of Khan" movie with a different ending. Star Trek lore and mythology means nothing to Abrams, he is re-booting the series and making it his own. He is not interested in redoing what Gene Roddenberry had envisioned; he is making Star Trek his own, and that means changing things around.
Now, I don't think Wrath of Khan needed any re-doing -- it is, by far, the best Trek film. But, I don't have any say in this, so thats, that. I'm not sure I want to go to this one, though; partly because I liked the original Wrath of Khan so much I don't want that spoiled.
You know, they could have simply done a “Kirk and the Gang - The Early Years” without the alternate timeline twaddle. However, as you noted, that would have prevented Lensflare Abrams from crapifying it with his particular genius. Heck, they could have gone so far as exploring a different aspect of the Trek Universe they way that DS9 and Voyager did, but that would not have allowed Captain Blue Filter to leave his stain, er, mark on established characters.
Oh yea, Planet Vuclan was wiped out... lol