To anyone who thinks this is a placebo (or 'Mandela' effect) please explain how so many of us noticed the drop in quality and then came here to see if we were going mad. You're assuming that a small handful of people thought the graphics had been downgraded and started complaining about it and then everyone else just jumped on board and developed these 'false memories', but I'll wager most of us here arrived at our own conclusions without any leading whatsoever.
I didn't read the 1.0.1 patch notes before I installed it, didn't read the forums or watch any streamers, and the very first thing I noticed was that the graphics were worse. I assumed my settings had defaulted back to 'Rare' and I was in the middle of a game so didn't bother changing them. A couple of friends joined me a bit later in a crew (this was the first time they were playing after the patch) and within a few minutes they were both commenting on the graphics looking worse. I suggested that our settings had probably changed but when we all checked, they were all still on 'Mythical'. The salient point here is that we all independently noticed the graphics were worse without any of us being 'influenced' by someone else (even the patch notes don't even say what they've done).
I seriously hope the upcoming patch will revert things to how they were. When an enemy ship is approaching mine, I want to be sure of how many people are on it and what they're doing WELL before they're close enough to sucker punch me.