***It seems a very unloving thing to do unless they think that membership in that church isn't important.***
Not attending church in over a year does not sound like much commitment to that body of believers (illness and travel being obvious excceptions). Churches that are congregational often try to keep membership lists clean so that quorums for meetings and votes are not impacted. Some churches move people to inactive membership status for the same reasons.
People are funny creatures, and sometimes thier reasons for staying away are not because they no longer believe. When a church that has this policy of removing people off of the membership roles crosses off someone's name, does that also revoke their baptism? If not, what typically would a person in a protestant church have to do to have thier baptism revoked. Apples should be compared with apples after all.