D&D General Reincarnate is and has always been, weird.

[rmcoen]

Unless your dex was like 30 or something it probably wasn't a significant loss of function dropping it to ten. Even if it was 30 that raises the question of how the heck it got there.

Prior to 3.x you had a giant deadzone in attributes that made it so you didn't really even see ±1 till like 6 & 16 with strength being the only attrib with something like percentile strength 18/⁰⁰ so attributes really were not particularly important. In 5e it goes the other way where the deadzoneis N itty bitty 9-11 with ±1 kicking in at 8&12 but math being tuned so PCs are assumed to have 6-8 in primary attributes but massively benefit from 18 throwing them well beyond the curve

The difference between 10 and 18 was 4 points of bonus to AC (just like it is now), or 3 to ranged attacks. Except for a THIEF, who specifically got percentage bonuses to all the thief skills for a high DEX. (I don't recall them, but it varied by skill.) If your skill was 30%, and losing DEX made it drop to 15%, that wasn't just "3pt swing on a d20" (which is noticeable)... it was "only half as good as you used to be". (Same numbers, different perception, yay statistics!)

 

[James Gasik]

When you consider that the difference between a 17 Dex and an 18 Dex feels like an entire level of ability for a Thief with regards to their Thieving skills, yeah, losing a few points of Dexterity is a big deal. And at 10, the penalties would make you feel like you've gone down 2-3 levels (on top of the level loss from, you know, dying). And while the Gnome racial bonuses to Thieving weren't as incredible as say, a Halflings, it was still better than what Humans got...ie...nothing.

 

[rmcoen]

When you consider that the difference between a 17 Dex and an 18 Dex feels like an entire level of ability for a Thief with regards to their Thieving skills, yeah, losing a few points of Dexterity is a big deal. And at 10, the penalties would make you feel like you've gone down 2-3 levels (on top of the level loss from, you know, dying). And while the Gnome racial bonuses to Thieving weren't as incredible as say, a Halflings, it was still better than what Humans got...ie...nothing.
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Thank you @James Gasik that's what I remembered... it was a huge downgrade of my capabilities (although I could Climb Walls better afterwards!). But, irrelevant now, as @jmartkdr2 pointed out -- the charts are more forgiving (always a PC race), you don't reroll stats... and race/species/affinity/whatever-the-new-name is gives no modifiers anyway!