Niantic has expanded their new tracking system to more of the world, so I can now pipe up on it. Does it work? Yes. Is it an improvement? To a point.
The new Nearby feature does help, but it doesn't allow you to see Sightings simultaneously. So if ANYTHING is anywhere NEAR a PokéStop you see nothing that is in the vicinity. So yes, Sightings does come up essentially when you are nowhere near PokéStops. So they have officially killed the hunt for Pokémon.
I have been using a screen overlay app to triangulate where Pokémon are using my Sightings list before the Nearby tracking system came out. It worked. The app essentially used your phone's location an when you see something in your Sightings you're hunting for, you clicked that you see it. It dropped a 200 meter radius around your location on a little compass on screen. Then as your tracking changed you continue to say if you see it or not, so it would drop 200 meter radius circles to narrow the field, either eliminating space because the Pokémon vanished from you sightings, or cutting out space in the original drop because it's still visible in a 200 meter radius from your new point.
This is a truer form of tracking than your maps that say "this Pokémon is here - in this exact place - for [this] many more minutes." But again, this new tracking update removes that from the game - the ability to hunt - unless you can get far enough away from PokéStops.
I understand that the game is also a business, and that the design team is doing as they can. I understand that they claim the footstep tracking system put strain on their servers. But it made it as the Pokémon everyone grew up dreaming of. Now most rely on maps because tracking is so difficult. And yes again, this new update does help in many ways, giving a better idea where Pokémon are. But it also hinders for people who figure out a way to play Pokémon Go, while actually hunting as the game was designed to emulate.
So rather than cutting out the thrill of the hunt - which all species enjoy in more aspects of life than just humans and video games - push for both aspects to be present at once. The Nearby idea is great to narrow a field of search and direct people. But allow the Sightings to be simultaneously active too, so when other Pokémon are close and not just Nearby PokéStops, you can still see them on your radar, and still hunt for them.
I can't possibly be alone in these thoughts.
