I don't think so.
I have not given any medals in quite some time and still had the option a while ago (before the message system update?).
If it was not an intentional Dev change, it is likely a bug.
Though I guess it is possible that I accidently clicked one off when trying to "star" a message.
Does anyone still have the option to give a medal?
Don't forget you can give less medals to realm-mates than foreigners. In other words, you need more spare medals for the link to even show up next to realm mates' messages. Maybe you just noticed you had the medals to give next to foreigners' messages, and now only notice it's not there next to realm-mates' messages?
