I actually agree with the OP. I hate Vote Abandon. I've never initiated vote abandon in a duty in DF, and I've never agreed to one and I've never saw the reason for any that have gone through. I stick with whatever group I get to the bitter end, and we have salvaged victories on the last attempt with five minutes or less left many many times, after many many people have left and more than a few vote abandons have been shut down. I've never found myself in a truly hopeless party, and even when I personally think the group will probably quit/time out before clearing I still stick around because experience doing the content (both for me and the new players) is a valuable thing and I always try to give new players as much time in the instance as they're willing to take.

I get kicked out of perfectly good duties all the time because of it everyday though, and it drives me insane. What many people in this thread fail to realize is that what is happening most of the time is some jerky self-entitled player is initiating it when things are just a little shaky but more than salvageable, and the others, being the sheep that most people are, simply click "Yes" because they assume there must be some reason for it and click "Yes" on anything that pops up. This is how most kicks go through as well.

You say people who don't want to be there shouldn't be held hostage. They're not. Don't wanna be there? Then leave and eat your piddling, meaningless 30 minute penalty, and don't try to take everyone else with you. It's rude. The person who feels like they're being held hostage is the one who waits 45 minutes to get a shot at something, then is forced out of the instance because one guy decided it wasn't happening and enough sheep clicked Yes.

Vote Abandon should be unanimous. Or it shouldn't be allowed at all until the 10-minute warning and the group has given the content a fair shot. Or it should just not be there. It's served no good purpose in any DF group I've ever been in and I do most content through DF. If you don't like the way an instance is running, you leave or you kick the problem. When these options already exist for the player the only thing Vote Abandon accomplishes is forcing out the people who want to stay against their will. Vote Abandon is, as someone here said, the nuclear option. It's the last resort of last resorts, and should be treated as such.