> Weirdly, I've multiple 14.04 machines (including freshly installed) here
> that lose name resolving abilities after removing /etc/resolv.conf.
Ah, a misunderstanding. What I meant is that the resolver still functions: it tries to reach a nameserver at 127.0.0.1. In your case there is no nameserver listening at 127.0.0.1 so resolving doesn't succeed.
> Weirdly, I've multiple 14.04 machines (including freshly installed) here
> that lose name resolving abilities after removing /etc/resolv.conf.
Ah, a misunderstanding. What I meant is that the resolver still functions: it tries to reach a nameserver at 127.0.0.1. In your case there is no nameserver listening at 127.0.0.1 so resolving doesn't succeed.