I think that's an exaggeration. Yes, many people probably stopped voting on many things and I thought the same thing when the HF 19 was goin in to place. But I think the change was good because:

• New users, minions, can reward other posts higher per vote. Further voting will just dilute their voting power just as before after 40 votes, just that it's only 10 votes today.
• Wales can just vote with less power, ie. 4x less voting power per vote and still be able to vote just as many times as before. Instead of voting at 100% they can vote at 25% and give just as much as before.

People just continue voting as before since it doesn't really matter that the voting power was changes to 4x the power as before HF19.