Absolutely. They even said in the article:

He’s also glad, on the other hand, that the MBTA took such a hardline approach to the 2008 talk that it got his attention and kickstarted the group’s research almost a decade and a half later. “If they hadn’t done that,” Harris says, “we wouldn’t be here.”

It's the Streisand Effect in full force; they drew attention to the vulnerability by fighting it so hard the first time. Who knows how many other people have found vulnerabilities since then that just haven't been vocal about it. (The article mentions one such person, even.)