There seems to be some confusion on this, at least on my part. My understanding was that the defense bonus of Stealth was never suppressed -- only the stealth component was suppressed by combat.
This is why I've always included Stealth in many of my builds: I pick it instead of Combat Jumping. The defense value of Stealth is the same as CJ and Hover; however, the endurance cost of Stealth and Hover are higher than CJ because of the additional benefits of Stealth's reduced perception bonus or Hover's improved vertical mobility. That additional end cost was worth the tradeoff (CJ has a much cheaper end cost).
But somewhere along the way, that changed. After carefully insuring that my builds soft-cap defense with Stealth, it's disheartening to see my defense drop below that in combat, since the patch. I've heard someone say that it's always been suppressed (I doubt that, but honestly can't say for sure, because I never paid so much attention before), someone else say that half of it suppressed (which seems kind of like what's happening now), and others (like me) who say it never suppressed before. Which is it? Which is it supposed to be? Which should it be?