For me it was a Subaru STI. I enjoyed it more in almost every way than the Porsche, other than how it looked. My father has a nice 90s Miyata. I've driven it quite a bit and for the money it is a pretty well thought out and fun vehicle. He's got less into the whole car than I have in my Porsche engine and trans.
They discontinued it for the most basic reason any company stops producing a low-volume product: the demand just wasn't there. And it still isn't as much as predicted, as is evident by the slightly underwhelming sales of the Subaru BRZ and Toyota FR-S/86.