Always love it when the "Dividends do not matter crowd" show up. Makes for interesting arguments.
Some basic facts: If a stock pay a dividend the price drops by that amount on that day. To find out when a stock payed a dividend, obviously look at the chart.... Oh wait, you can't see where it took place? Funny since the stock drops, you'd think you see that, except Mr Market tends to not have a straight value on any single day, so while you can make charts that show that hey, if the dividend hadn't been payed the stock would have gone up another 300%, the truth of the matter is, it might be the same price as it is today. Why, cause Mr Market is a honey badger and don't give a dam!
Some companies absolutely should be reinvesting in their business and NOT paying a dividend, no argument from me, but lets take KO. Raised its current dividend 56 years in a row and one of about 130ish companies that have done so for 25 years or more. They know the cost to make a new beverage, and have more then enough income to play around a little. Do you think investing more money into a drink will produce more income? I'll bet they have tried that, and I'll bet the answer is NO.
As for buy backs, if done properly they can increase market value, but I see that the majority of the time (as already stated here) companies buy back at the top. (Top is IN!) What does that do? Well, it COSTS value more often then not and does not really help the stock or barely does so. If done properly yes, stock buybacks are efficient, but usually they are not.
As for taxes, well your gonna pay them when you pull out of your stocks so the difference is... (drum roll please) a dividend you still HAVE your stock AND if you DRIP (Reinvest your dividend) you have MORE stock. Taxes and death are two absolutes. Deal with it.
Finally as SOL said, it's cash money. Fait currency, income, etc. While it can be cut, it probably won't be most of the time. And if it is (assuming individual stocks as ETF's/indexes in general pay a varying dividend) you will have plenty of warning as of the last few companies that have done so to me, I was fully aware it was one of the top possibilities.
Invest how you want to invest if you'd rather have no dividends, the don't invest in anythng that has those. Those exist, and I fully expect somebody out there does just that. and IF you get a dividend (and don't like it) just reinvest it and look at it as free stock. It's not but devil is in the details, and move on. It's all total return anyway so deal with it. (Total return = current price gain + dividend)
After all that I do have to say, BRK.B may not pay a dividend, but sure looks like they love em as much as any dividend investor!