After reading some more of this thread it seems clear cut that:
THe majority of people who hated reaction notifications are low-impulse posters. They prefer fewer notifications and prefer to click more to find what they want to see. Which is odd because reaction notifications could be turned off before.
The majority of people who want the notifications back, were posters who used the notifications as a feedback loop to create better content, or use is a quick bookmark to threads they had posted in (this is why I liked them).
All talk of dopamine is reddit-level gay. The posters who use dopamine as an excuse to why the notifications should be turned off are reddit posters who are wanting to keep out other reddit posters.
TL;DR - good posters used reaction notifications in a positive way. Bad, reddit-tier faggot posters who don't like a mirror held up to their low-impulse, shit-tier updoot posts.
_____________________________________________________________________________
All of that said, is there a reason why the sign-up date is now hidden?
If I was a tinfoil hat wearing maniac, I would see the lack of sticker notifications, the protection of the reddit-tier posters and removal of a sign-up date, are all used to encourage reddit-posters to sign up for the farms.
Many years ago, I sent an email to Null about how his mod staff had been comprimised by power-tripping mods that were looking to take down the site from the inside. Not long after a purge took place.
I think Null is looking to offload the site to another owner but needs to keep the balance between saying nigger and faggot, while increasing the user base and boosting the public image.