Not true. You just haven’t been paying attention. For example:
Even people who have had open topics here over the past year or two:
Nothing should be drained except you have auto-contribute turned on and you have vBAT in your browser.
What this means is you don’t earn BAT unless you’re connected to Uphold or Gemini. If you’re not verified/connected, you don’t earn for yourself. However, you have the option to still participate in Rewards so that Creators can earn BAT. You just don’t have control over it like you used to, so you’ll not be able to choose exactly which websites to tip and won’t see a running tally