Well, this fix (which I didn't feel was necessary in the first place) has had a negative impact.
I've noticed that there seems to now be a limit to how many comments will be spoken aloud at the same time (I assume to cut down on the amount of crosstalk). However, as the game doesn't prioritize one comment over the other (e.g. random vendors versus your companion or main characters commenting on something that just happened), I've ended up missing out on a number of more important comments which were not voiced, or even cut off mid-statement as a pair of nearby commenting vendors consume all the available audio slots.
Joy. Would rather have the noisier chatter back (as I had no problems focusing on the specific statements I wanted to hear) rather than voices being randomly silenced to appease players who were apparently raised in a library-like environment and can't deal with sound.
