It's like they don't realize that before Michael Phelps there was Matt Biondi. Or before him there was Mark Spitz. Swimming has had individual stars for a long time; this isn't something new.
Rowing's problem is in large part that it's not a good spectator sport. Swimmers go back and forth in a 50m pool, and a crowd can sit around them in a stadium and watch from start to finish. Same with track&field. A rowing course stretches 2000m, straight, so you can either sit and watch the beginning, watch the middle somewhere, or watch the finish, but you can't do all three. Cycling has pretty much the same problem - you can't see anything but a small bit of the race. Swimming and T&F are also easier to televise, since you can have static cameras from several vantage points and be able to cover everything. Not so with crew or cycling; look at how much effort goes into covering the Tour de France, and crew almost requires a moving camera to watch the noses of the lead boats.
I wouldn't mind seeing a few different distances in Olympic rowing, though. 5k or 10k, maybe a shorter sprint. But the longer distances would be incredibly difficult to put on, since you need a decent course that's relatively straight and calm, and the spectator issues would be even worse.
