I took the swaybars off of both of my Trackers and I don't miss it at all. For me, disconnects wouldn't be worth it, I would leave them disconnected all the time and wouldn't want to add the weight of a useless swaybar back onto the truck.
When you were lifting a tire, how were you doing it? with a jack under the a-arm or under the tire? The tire would have a lot more leverage on the spring than a jack under the arm, because it's the furthest point from the pivot... Whenever I've jacked up my rig from the a-arm, it behaves differently than when I drive that tire up on a rock or log. The jack raises the frame more than just lifting the tire, which would lift the rear tire more...