I'm not sure if he is saying it is gone or not. I realize there is the center map feature - I just never use it as it confused my players to have their map jerk around all while simultaneously not actually showing them what I was trying to show them. And when you spam it 4 or 5 times, it doesn't make it easier to understand what is going on.
I.e. You notice rocks "here, here, here and here" and you can do it in literally less than a second and a half with the ping. Jerking the map around does not give that sense to the players at all. It just helps you focus on a single larger area.
Anyway, I don't see the ping icon appearing any more in the latest, but again - maybe something is wrong with my setup now? I don't know if the ability to use it is actually gone or not, though. If it is, I've got to go back to the last version in which that feature was still present. Nothing else really matters compared to that.