We cant say that there is no need of Mahamana, it is running with good occupancy that justifies the purpose of running that train. It was not introduced for just tourists. It was meant to be the dedicated connection between Bhopal and Lalitpur Tikamgarh Chatarpur more than that of Khajuraho, it act only as a terminal. It was earlier announced as an SF intercity and got changed to Mahamana just before day of introduction.
Yes a reverse intercity will serve the purpose more than Mahamana but closing of it is not good in my opinion.