The rating system is still fully functional. It just now requires a minimum of 3 votes before any star(s) become displayed. This prevents a single person from deciding the number of stars that appear...Which as you noted, had become a problem in the past.
You can still rate any thread, and your rating vote will be recorded. But until two other people rate that same thread, you won't see any stars for it is all. And if/when those stars do appear, remember the number of them you see is just an average of all votes recorded.
