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Why do the SSPX care if the excommunication was lifted or not?  I don't understand why that would affect their purpose of preserving the Catholic faith in these times. 

I agree, from the point of view of it being an honour to be excluded from the society of the wicked, to be excluded from a church 'to which we never belonged' as the General Chapter said after the 1988 Consecrations.
However, in the context of accepting a pardon for themselves, and rejoicing in it, moreover, while their founding father remained condemned... what an outrage! What an astounding lack of filial piety. What a travesty of justice.
Of course, the whole affair was one of diplomacy based on dishonesty and deceit. If the excommunications were never valid, how could the SSPX rejoice and be grateful for having them lifted without accepting that they existed in the first place?
Now they want us to believe that the Archbishop was in fact included in the sordid deal? As Pax says above, it can only be part of their ongoing propaganda campaign geared towards an agreement with Rome. That's why the neo-SSPX care!

For the first time in 7 years I heard a sermon last week in which the SSPX priest stated "we are not sedevacantists and that Francis is the pope we say his name and the local bishop in the Mass" blah, blah, blah.....to me it was a sign that an announcement of some kind of deal will be soon.

Nevertheless --

Let's not lose sight of the main issue with the SSPX:

They have changed (past tense)

- not -

"Dare gon' be a deal wif Rome."

The latter? We could be wrong. They could drag it out for years. They could stick to a de-facto, unofficial capitulation on the part of the SSPX, for the next 20 years.

But if the SSPX *has* changed -- for example, their seminary formation has drastically changed (it has!) and keep in mind the SSPX is first and foremost a society for the formation of Traditional priests -- then we're all in trouble. More specifically, we all need to Resist, regardless of our "chances", the numbers in the Resistance, the current state of it, etc. We have no choice but to oppose the Novus Ordo-ing of the SSPX. And it has already begun, and is actually far advanced at this point!

For that matter, most of you are too young to remember the immediate aftermath of Vatican II (and yes I'm a bit cheeky for bringing up this point, since I was born in the mid-70's myself) but at least I learned from books after the fact... Anyhow, my point is: there were plenty of "good" or traditionally-minded priests here and there, at churches here and there, for many years after the Novus Ordo was released. They were formed "the old way", just as many SSPX priests today were formed before 2003, when the big changes started hitting in their seminaries. The % of "good priests" back then might be only slightly less than the % that we see in the SSPX today.

Is it not interesting all the nonsense that comes out of Rome?  Whenever a priest or bishop, a.k.a, Abp. Lefebvre or Fr. Feeney, does something to buck the system, like telling Protestants and Jєωs that they must become Catholics, or consecrating bishops to preserve the faith, they get excommunicated by the modernists in Rome.  Bp. Williamson told us in seminary that on the day of the consecrations a car arrived from Rome, requesting that Abp. Lefebvre go to Rome, that the "Holy Father requested his presence."  Think about how ridiculous that is, several thousand people to witness the consecrations, and the old Archbishop is going to get in the car for Rome.  The modernists are so ridiculous as to be laughable!

Yeah sounds like a father picking up his teen daughter from a friend's house after she ran away from home.