I agree with the observation that people aren't tipping as much as they were a month ago. It could just be a case of hodling. Its also possible the airdropping is changing the percieved need to compensate contributors since a 5sat tip is much lower than payout to active authors. To be honest, I've noticed the more effort you put into a post the less likely it will be tipped. The link posters and software authors seem to get most of the gratitude, not that it's bad, just an observation of what people value.