For sure there is need for programming language research. Language designers benefit greatly from the work done by the academia - for example in the area of type systems. But, OTOH, scientific community is not very tuned in the everyday problems programmers have. That is why some of the popular languages are basically hobby projects spawned from some lone programmer's personal itch.

I think we should have the best of both worlds; people enjoying the mathematical rigor should do PL research. And hobbyist language designers should pursue whatever ideas they might have. But both camps should acknowledge that the other side is equally important.