I'm actually of the mind that locations like the market feel much less alive since the patch reduced the amount of banter. It's not a good direction to continue down, in my opinion, and the change has already impacted party chatter negatively.
I'm a little frustrated that these lively areas are slowly getting ruined because people are either being overly sensitive or refusing to even try to set their audio up properly. It would be like me complaining that all the art is oversaturated with color to the point of annoying my eyes and making it hard to focus on anything, and insisting it all be toned down and washed out for everyone.
