I also wonder why organelle genomes persist at all. They've already lost most of their genes. It could be that selection doesn't care, but there are other mechanistic biases that drive it in one direction. It's interesting because transfer is a very complex process, but with these ribosomal genes it occurs more frequently than silent base substitutions. Apparently, almost anything goes.
Some people fear that, with so many genomes being sequenced, science is moving too fast.
They're concerned that we're getting beyond ourselves. Perhaps that's behind recent skepticism about genetically modified foods and gene patenting. Genomes have bizarre properties. Evolution has played with genes so much, what we're doing is tiny. Genomes have bizarre properties.