ahrefs: Links Remain Important
ahrefs, a popular search engine optimization tool, did an interesting study regarding links by disavowing links to some pages and then removing the disavow.
As a result, they concluded links remain important. Their test pages are still down when compared to the ones they originally tested. These changes could be because of algorithm changes, that Google has not rechecked yet links, or that other sites are getting more links while ahrefs drop.
Here’s one chart from their study:
My recommendation would be to not disavow links to your pages based on their study. Because Google devalues bad links a lot these days, you should be careful when using the disavow tool.
You can learn more about how Google processes link disavow files from the Search Engine Roundtable.