The padlock was already meaningless.
Some people assign additional meaning to the padlock, which should not be done. It doesn't mean you are talking to your bank, it only means that you are talking to the website shown in the URL bar and that reasonable (simple) checks were performed to make sure that is the case.
I'd suggest we invent something better before we start breaking it.
LE means that the mantra "if it's https then it's a secure and reputable website" is now outdated.
No it didn't. Let's Encrypt made free certificates easier to get, but Let's Encrypt doesn't do less verification than some other CAs/some of their products.
No, it didn't. DV certs never meant that (EV certs did and still do, but LE doesn't offer EV and EV isn't and never was necessary for the padlock.)