I think they needed to miss to smarten up the Italian soccer federation. Face it, no country has the God given right to be in all tournaments. Italian federation hubris got them to this point.
France missed in 1990 and 1994, England missed in 1994, US missed this year after forever being in, Netherlands has missed and is missing, Spain missed in the 1970s. It happens.
I feel badly for Buffon but he would have ended his career crying anyway as they were not going to win next year anyway.