I spent the morning prospecting in the two LTD2 hotspots I discovered out here in the void, which I've been mining casually for a couple of weeks.
Not wanting to just accept the "mining is dead" whines from other players, I wanted to see for myself how things are, and do it the right way, not subjective.
So I went to both my hotspots, and fired 100+ limpets as if I was going to mine, but I didn't bother actually mining. Then I uploaded my journal files to the really cool mining analyzer tool that figures out your actual percentages and compares them to known values.
The results:
One of my LTD2s is still decent, and it is producing just a bit less than what was expected from an LTD2 prior to today's patch. I found lots of cores, 3 of which were LTD, a couple were Grandiderite, and several were Bromellite. I found many laser-able LTD rocks. What I did not find was a single LTD subsurface node. Most of the subsurface stuff was junk (a few were Tritium).
The other LTD2 didn't fare so well. It is now producing at much less than an LTD1 was before. I found only 1 core, and it was Bromellite. Again, I found no SSDs.
Based on this (clearly very limited) data, it appears to me that things have been nerfed pretty good, but there will still be some hotspots that are mostly decent. If I had actually mined my first LTD2 today, I'd have come away with my usual 100+ tons of stuff, most of which would have been LTDs, with some Grandiderite thrown in.
I do think FDEV has messed up subsurface mining though. It seems to be back to useless status again, which is a shame.
Analyzer tool for those interested:
https://fankserver.gitlab.io/elite-dangerous/mining-analyser/
I guess we'll see how it all pans out, but I'm reasonably sure mining will still produce ok results, at least compared to other ways of earning credits.