Well, the ROM's mandate is the arts through all the ages - including ours. And all cultural institutions ( including the AGO - yes, yes, I know we've drifted waaaay off topic here and I'm trying to get back on course, really I am ... ) must remain connected to the contemporary world or face decline - hence the importance of bodies such as the ROM's ICC, I think. It links their mandate to display the arts very closely to creative culture of the present.
Adapt or die - one of the main reasons the ROM launched their expansion was to deal with a reduced interest from the public in what they had to offer, and difficulties connecting with that public. Hence a deliberate decision to employ the camera-friendly voodoo trickery of Big Hair iconic architecture to entice the masses through the front door and keep the staff gainfully employed.
It sems to have worked, judging by the crowds there whenever I go. And although Libeskind may be flavour of the month, producing high-fashion shape du jour buildings that will inevitably become horribly unfashionable sooner rather than later, he still understood the basic programmatic requirements of the institution better than the other shortlisted architects - and designed a building to address those issues. So I think that, for quite some time, it will be difficult to argue that the Crystal should be replaced. I think that Gehry, who is also a smart cookie and good problem-solving designer, will have similar success at the AGO.
The opera house and the Toronto Symphony are both doing their level best to capture new, younger and more diverse audiences too, with reduced ticket prices and targeted programming. And I think that there will be more and more cross-pollination of ideas between all these arts bodies. Film directors like Egoyan directing the Ring, an opera of Cronenberg's The Fly to name a couple of examples, and live broadcasts from the Met with babe divas wearing next to nothing, etc. etc.
Roy Thomson Hall, despite the acoustical improvements that their renovations gave them, still isn't considered one of the great halls acoustically, but they're a great orchestra ... with the right conductor. And the COC has both, which positions them as one of the finest places to hear opera anywhere in the world ( and the National Ballet ain't too shabby an outfit either! ). With 80% of opera tickets pre-sold to subscribers, and most performances sold out for the whole season, the building is a huge success. And the COC didn't have to resort to starchitecture to make it happen - and neither did the Ballet School, the Royal Conservatory, the Gardiner, and the upcoming Film Centre. But then none of them need to stand on the sidewalk like fairground barkers driving as many people through the front doors every day as possible. They're free of that, and their requirements are as different as their design solutions.
I don't discount the mass appeal of flashy starchitecture - this forum speaks eloquently of the appeal of buildings that are camera-friendly 3D logos. Whenever a new thread starts, with an image of some obviously computer-generated design by someone currently fashionable starchitect prominently posted, the discussion is always about how the building looks, rarely if ever about how it functions so we are firmly in the realm of seeing architecture solely as spectacle. The cutback on government funding has certainly put cultural centres on the spot, and the AGO and ROM see starchitecture as a solution to drumming up business, by drawing the masses with an iconic structure.