I actually kept my index, I just unpinned it, so it fell back to 2018. I won’t update it, but it will be there if I every want to access it or if Medium decides to do away with Lists.
I like not having an index story pinned to the top of my page, forcing readers to scroll to see something new. I don’t like visiting a profile page and seeing the same three pinned stories every time. Lists solved that issue. And honestly, few people ever accessed my index. I did it mainly for myself. Lists makes it far easier.