I completely agree....Here is a comment from Tony a post from yesterday. At least we now know why the change happened.

"The only change I know of is rate limiting. There's been an unfortunate belief that the way to make money is to give and encourage engagement. This does go directly against the goal of quality when it is done in an inauthentic way. So our take is that the higher the volume, the less authentic the behavior. Or less antagonistically, if you comment on hundreds of stories then a comment from you is less of a signal that any of those stories were the cream of the crop. Someone with more tact than me will probably announce something soon. But essentially, manufactured engagement is a form of growth hacking. I wish that were more obvious to the people doing it."