What gives me faith, though, is that the bitcoin market did not budge at all, and in fact went UP after the LR press release.
Here is the question I can't answer right now...
if the largest funding source for the most traded currency (USD) on the highest volume exchange is now closed then how is money going to get into and out of the market? I too am surprised that neither price NOR volume changed very much with this event. That alone makes me very concerned. The volume is either fake, inflated by API trading, or something else.
That's where I think you are absolutely wrong. LR and Dwolla were a tiny portion of the USD funding for MtGox. Wires have always been how the big money funds their accounts. Dwolla might have had quite a few individual transactions, but they were only used for smaller transactions.