The drop chance was lowered but the amount they drop when you go to collect them was increased.

They still drop but the chance is fairly low, they used to be smaller and more frequent now that they are more rare and larger the rng can lead to long dry spells, I didn't get a blacksmith survey on any of my four alts for weeks but this week they were dropping all over the place.

Best advice is don't worry, they will average out given long enough. In the meantime remember the constant dribble of hirelings, they don't give much but you'd be amazed how fast a dripping tap fills up a bath. Also when out looking for mats, get of the horse, it makes me laugh so hard when players race my casually jogging character to a node only to race of again leaving behind litteraly dozens of other nodes hidden here and there

Definitely wouldn't stop doing it, it's by far my biggest gold source if you all up selling what you get and more than eighty percent of my gold tempers come that way, without it I simply couldn't afford to upgrade all the way