The Finder status bar offered a quick reference to how many files/folders existed in the current directory along with your hard-drive's available space.

Finder, without the status bar:

Finder, with the status bar:

It turns out that rather than removing it, Apple simply defaulted it to hidden (at least since 10.8).

With Finder focused, go to View > Show Status Bar. Or if you plan on toggling the status bar on/off, simply hit command+/ to quickly show or hide the status bar.