Ion promised it would be removed within a few weeks, and every Dev mention of it has reiterated that few weeks.
Layering is purely to get us through the launch, and then it will be removed when all the tourists die off.
That’s the plan, and has always been the plan.
Blizzard has never stated that phasing would be in the game, since that’s a storytelling device, but the Sharding investigation that they mentioned is the same thing.