Gotcha, well there are still weekly challenges accessible through Uplay which reward you with renown (like 250 per challenge, which isn’t a lot and it’s Uplay, but it’s something). I don’t think there’s any tie between the reputation system and renown.

I do know that if you have multiple matches in a row where teammates commend you, you get on a commendation streak for which other players on your team can see an indicator so they know you’ve been a helpful or at least enjoyable teammate, and that streak also grants you a +1.0% bonus to your chances of getting an alpha pack if you win a match while on the streak. Furthermore, there are 5 reputation ranks: Dishonorable, Disruptive, Respectable, Esteemed, and Exemplary. Esteemed and Exemplary players should soon start getting more rewards like regular alpha pack drops and possibly more. Dishonorable players are already locked out of the ranked playlist.

My experience so far has not been that you are punished for trash talk, unless you’re just being an absolute dick and/or bigot, and players are not more “fake friendly” now, but instead are less toxic and less likely to rage over the mic/text chat and are also more likely to try to be helpful with callouts and planning strats for the next round. To me, that’s an all-around great change. I’m not sure if my experience alone is worth much, but I believe I have 300-500 hours in the game from the last few years alone so I would like to think I have at least some sense of the trend in the community.