Yes I believe that Google did in fact introduce the disable feature in ICS.
My main reason for rooting non-Nexus phone is to, of course, remove the bloatware. It really does significantly increase the phones speed because many of the bloat apps persist in the phone's active RAM (and cache) until the phone's RAM capacity is fully in use, then Android automatically kills off processes that it deems low in priority to make room for the processes one demands. This is the main reason behind why task killers are useless.
I have much experience changing the suffix of the apks via root explorer to remove bloat, as I have with my OG Droid, Droid X and various other Verizon phones that my friends had. I made an aggressive list in the developer section of the Droid X for Corey, which he added to his post. However, Google's App menu does not allow every app to be disabled. Most can. This will have to suffice until a root is found.
My aggressive DL is as follows... This is tested and proven to work and will not damage or prevent your phone from running correctly. *If you use any of these apps ie: Google Music then obv do not disable. This is just a list of the apps that I have disabled.
Amazon
Amazon (Store)
Amazon kindle
Amazon MP3
Amazon (App store)
Audible
Calendar (I dl the Google one, do not disable calendar storage as this affects the Google one from the play store as well)
Caller ID (Wack, and not accurate)
Dictionary Provider (SwiftKey rules all)
Droid command center (beautiful widget)
Droid dream (Useless)
Droid Zap (cool but slow and not super useful. Gmail is faster)
Emergency Alerts
Google Keyboard (SwiftKey all day)
Google Play Books
Google Play Magazines
Google Play Movies
Google Play Music
Help
Home Screen Tips
Migrate (after using it, becomes useless)
Migrate Reader Library
Migrate Writer Library
Moto Hotspot
Moto Chinese Input
Motorola Assist
Motorola Assist Framework
Motorola Assist Talk To Me
Motorola Car Dock
My Info Zone
NFL Mobile (surprised I was allowed to)
Photo Screen Savers
Sync Service (I hate vzw backup assistance. It's redundant. Google back up is better)
Talkback (handicap assist)
Verizon Login (idk what it does but useless imo)
Verizon Mobile Security
Verizon Tones
Viewdini
VMware ready
Voicemail (Google Voice)
Vz Navigator (Google Maps is the truth. Wale accident updated built in. Nice touch)
Weather (I use weather bug)
That's my list so far. If anybody has any questions please feel free to ask.