We are of one mind on this. Which I suppose some could interpret to mean we're both half-brained, but I digress...
I don't miss hockey. I've never bothered watching other teams' games. Even Jets games get mostly half-watched. The timing of most games is such that I'm usually occupied with making supper for a portion of it. I doubt that I've ever watched an entire game from puck drop to final buzzer, even when attending. I avoid the lineups for beer and pissing by going while the play is on. And the last couple of years, we would often leave early to catch a bus rather than be stuck downtown for the extra half hour or more till the next bus was able to crawl through the post-game traffic tie-ups and pull up to the arena. And when you get one of those half-assed efforts that seem to be commonplace during the regular season, I just feel like I've wasted a bunch of time that I could have spent watching something entertaining. Like paint drying.
So yeah, I'm also hoping this CBA squabble kills the season. Players will get nothing, and owners will lose less. That's a win-win from my perspective. If some long-term disinterest flows out of this and HRR suffers, fine with me. As you say, we need a league that recognizes it does not have the same appeal as the NFL, NBA or MLB and charges accordingly.