If you're retired and just counting on yield, fine.  But if you're still growing your portfolio, you're likely looking for total return.  As the article mentions, companies in certain sectors like utilities, REITs, telecoms, rely on debt to grow their business investing in infrastructure, acquisitions, new tech, etc.  Fortis bought ITC for $11B.  Enbridge bought Spectra for $37B.  Telecoms are spending millions to lay fibre (both for FTTH and 5G backbone) and are still paying off their spectrum purchases.   Higher servicing costs of their debt will likely impact Free Cash Flow and their bottom line.  While companies are going to defend their dividends and will likely be able to continue to grow them by harvesting the benefits of their current capital projects, there's going to be less capital allocated to future growth projects which should correspondingly slow the future growth of their share price.  Hence why the article talks about being more selective, not necessarily abandoning.